Summer In The City
by JirachiScratchz
Summary: A year after the construction around Inkopolis Tower started, and school is out for the summer again. Moray Gulf is connected to the world, 'Turf War's popularity is resurging, suspicious activity is drawing attention in the back alleys of the city, and when something finally snaps, Finley's world is about to change.
1. Chapter One

It was a Friday. The Friday. The forecast was sunny, not too hot or too cold. The small seaside city of Moray Gulf was, as far as cities in the south went these days, quite the ordinary place. Trend culture was rampant, as well as graffiti culture; the nearby beach brought in tourists in the summer and warmth in the winter; and the school days were short, so the town's youth were often left to their own devices. They'd adopted the same obsession with fashion and pop culture that their generation had elsewhere. The citizens may have been drifting away from tradition a bit fast, but to be fair, so had everywhere else. The atmosphere was slow and relaxed… except, of course, today.

It was the last day of school, and young inklings everywhere were excited for not only summer break, but the fact that recently the construction on a brand new train track had been finished- ran straight through their town, and all the way up north to Inkopolis. Inkopolis! The biggest city known to squid-kind, the hub of fashion and music and whatever else you could imagine. Before, the two cities had only been linked by a particularly twisty national highway- separated by sea thanks to the bay between the peninsula area Moray Gulf was located in and the coast where Inkopolis had been built, and the national forest that they couldn't build roads through separating them by land. However, since Submarine Direct had decided to be a bit adventurous- taking the risk and actually building a bridge over the bay- the time between the cities had been cut from about a day to less than an hour! The younger generation, of course, took this as an invitation to visit whenever they wanted, and since there was one day left before summer vacation, they were going to do just that. On top of that, the large construction area that had consumed the center of Inkopolis for 'renovations', even restricting access to the famed Inkopolis Tower, had been noticeably quieter recently- at least according to a few reputable bloggers who lived nearby- and rumors had been flying that it was going to reopen soon. It was a futile coincidence to hope for, of course, but people couldn't help but hope that maybe- just maybe- the intimidating white tarps would be gone when they finally set foot in Inkopolis.

Finley's alarm radio went off at 7 am, just like every day, and she woke up almost instantly to the tune of the Squid Squad's latest single, just like every morning since it had come out. (She didn't know how many times she'd listened to 'Splattack' so far. She didn't know what the title meant. She did know every word. She did not think she'd ever get tired of this song.) It had taken her just over an hour last night to pick her outfit- all the while on YouFace with her two best friends in similar situations- and, admittedly, she was still second-guessing her own choices, but she didn't have enough time to make any changes, if they were staying on track with her meticulously planned schedule, so she quickly put it on and admired her own stylistic choices in the mirror: her favorite gray sweatshirt with a logo on the front made of what she reckoned was the comfiest fabric in the entire world; orange plaid skirt (she had one in every color to be prepared, she'd just woken up orange today); her brand new sea-horses that changed color (innovative!); and her pride and joy- a replica Special Forces beret. She'd bought it in a museum forever ago, and it had not failed her yet. It changed color, the emblem was perfectly accurate, it had held up for years... God, she just loved this hat.

As she walked towards her door, she took one last look at the stack of papers on the table by the door. For weeks, she'd been planning for today- spending hours on the internet, nose-deep in guide books, all to make sure the visit to Inkopolis was perfect. Of course, she knew there'd be many more trips- every day, if she could- but this afternoon, she would be going with her two best friends in the entire world- Umi and Mari. Umi would be going to lots of camps this summer, so Fin wouldn't be seeing much of her- the longest being a two-week camp starting in two days. She'd only really get today to properly hang out with her for a while, so it needed to be special. As for Mari... she'd be able to visit more often, true, but her gang of brothers were rather... protective. Plus, travel wasn't her thing, and she did have a volunteer gig at the local library to stay on top of. Finley felt like the only one who really had the summer to herself... that's why, she reminded herself as she carefully slid the schedule into a brand-new bright orange folder and laid it down next to her bag, she had to make today perfect.

She nearly fell down the stairs as she rushed out of her bedroom, eager to just get the day started already, and actually did trip over Persimmon- her little sister. The two fell to the ground with a thump.

"Gah! Sis, you gotta stay out of the way..." They picked themselves up, looking the other girl up and down. (She'd always been critical of her little sister's fashion sense- it was purely out of good intentions, like she always told her, but the girl never really listened. Speaking of which…) "Are you really wearing your Squid Girl dress to school?" It was a bold move to so much as own the thing, never mind wearing it out in public- and at her age! Finley'd be embarrassed to be seen with her on the street, let alone at school. (Miracle this hadn't happened already.) "Don't you think that cartoon's... a bit young for you now?"

"I don't care." She pouted, smoothing out her dress. "I'm wearin' my nice dress for when we go to the city."

"'We'? Um, no way." Nope. Nooooooope. Nuh-uh. No way. No. Not in a million years. Eeever.

"Yes way! Momma said I was going with you." She stuck her tongue out.

"Mom..." She turned to her mother in the kitchen out of desperation, but she only nodded.

"Persimmon is certainly old enough to go to Inkopolis with you and your girls today." She said, rolling her eyes. "As long as she and her friends stay with you..."

"Her friends?" HECK to the no. "Mom, I can't believe you're making me take the baby bunch with me. This was supposed to be special!"

"And it will be, for you and Persimmon. I am not letting you two leave for such a big city all on your own, regardless of how remarkably grown-up you two are, and your friend's parents agree. You and Persimmon, your friends Umi and Mari, as well as Mari's brothers, a friend of one of Mari's brothers, and Persimmon's five best friends are all going to be going together." She put breakfast on plates, and put it on the kitchen table. "We had a mom meeting and decided on it, and it's final."

"Are you serious?!" This was, in a word, devastating. She'd been planning this trip for how long? She couldn't even remember. And now, instead of three people, they were a troupe of... like. Twelve. (She could never remember just how many brothers Mari had...)

"Yes. Now, both of you, come eat."

"I don't wanna go with Finley. She and her friends are mean." Persimmon said from the hallway- no doubt fixing that ridiculous hairdo of hers. It looked like she'd tried to put her dark-pink tentacles in a bun, but given up halfway through, resulting in a pile of tentacles pointing every which way on top of her head. All her friends seemed to like it, at least, but Finley couldn't help but find it so dreadfully out of style. It made her look like an old lady. Or a teen from a decade ago. Fin couldn't decide which. "They're just gonna run off and leave us alone."

"Oh, you can all take care of yourself." Finley scoffed, taking a bite and continuing with her mouth full. "If you're old enough to swim, you're old enough to walk around a city for an afternoon." (Hopefully she'd be there just one afternoon.)

"Nuh-uh! I'm awful at swimming!" Not in water, of course- the ink inside them weighed them down, so Inklings would drown in any water that was taller than they was. Swimming in ink, however- being able to take a full squid form as well as a kid form- was seen as a sign of maturity, of coolness. Kennith at school'd gotten a pair of real ink guns one christmas- okay, toy ink guns, but they still worked well enough- and it had become a popular pastime to go to the QK Mart after school and spray ink in the parking lot (the owner didn't mind, as long as they bought something and stayed out of the way of the gas station part) to have swimming contests and do little painting contests and just have a good time. Besides, they didn't cause any trouble. Mostly. "An' it's gonna be so crowded, an' loud, an' scary…"

"Can't you just find someone else to-"

"Girls. That is enough." Their mom intervened. "Persimmon, come eat breakfast. Finley, go get your bag. Either you two are going to Inkopolis together with the group, or you're not going."

"...fine." They sighed in unison. Persimmon came to the table and Finley went towards the stairs- not without shooting each other a look as they passed, of course.

Finley had been ecstatic last night to take out all the heavy books and crumpled papers from her backpack and replace them with everything she'd need for today- sunblock, cellphone, camera, snacks for the train, money, backup camera, fold-up raincoat and pocket umbrella (the forecast was sunny, but just in case), change of clothes, music player, and what little homework she had left to turn in before she was finally free. She took a moment to pull her orange tentacles back into a ponytail, making sure it wouldn't fall out, and put her brush and a couple of extra hair ties in her bag for good measure. She turned off her alarm clock (finally), popped in her earbuds (never a moment without music, please) and carefully slid the precious orange folder into its bag before she recklessly bolted back downstairs- only to end up waiting at the door.

"Hurry up, Persi..." She complained, watching her sister throwing random things in her bag painfully slowly. "Why didn't you pack yesterday?"

"I'm comin', I'm comin'!" She stuck her tongue out, putting her backpack on. "Waaaiiit."

"Fin, you have your phone, right? And your pocket money? Raincoat? Sunscreen?" Her mother looked in her backpack.

"Yes, Mom. I'm not an idiot. I know how to be prepared."

"Of course you're not, you're just going off so far on your own... I'm your mom, remember. It's my job to worry about you two." She laughed, opening the door. "Now both of you, remember! Be good, have fun, and stay together!" She waved as the two sisters raced out the door, for once exited to get to school.


	2. Chapter Two

She tried to walk faster than Persimmon. She always did, of course, but especially today. After they turned the corner up ahead, they'd turn the next corner, and then the chaos would begin- not only would she have to put up with more than the usual gaggle of people, but she'd have to make herself heard above the inevitable chatter to try and make sense of the plans for the afternoon. Having plans disrupted in general was upsetting to her, let alone something she'd been looking forward to as much as this. It was like a field trip. A field trip to somewhere wonderful with a bunch of kindergarteners. She hated it. Today was supposed to be a special day. She was going to go to Inkopolis, with Mari and Umi, and they'd buy things, and try things, and get ice cream and go to the top of Inkopolis tower and finally spend a first day of summer together and maybe even see some fireworks if there were any and now it was all ruined because her parents didn't trust her and it just wasn't fair. Her facial expression must have showed her disappointment, because Persi started walking faster, bouncing along next to her older sister like a jellyfish. Whenever Finley was in a bad mood, it seemed like her sister's go-to solution was talking. Lots and lots of talking.

"Hey Fin, hey Fin, do ya' think we'll get to see Inkopolis toooower?" She said in a cheery way, smiling brightly.

"I'm sure we'll get to see it. You can see it from almost anywhere in the city." Probably. It was tall, but so were the other buildings, and they weren't the tallest squids around…

"Do ya' think we'll get to see the Squid Sisters?" Ah, yes, the Squid Sisters- possibly the most popular musical act to grace the face of the internet since the internet was invented. The two siblings couldn't get enough of them(, even though they did have their occasional squabbles over who was the superior idol). They had the best merchandise collection on the block and the best poster collection in the neighborhood, (a gathering of items only second to Fin's own Squid Squad stash and the result of one of Mari's brothers' obsession with some show neither of them watched) and even though they hadn't actually released that many songs yet, Finley still listened to them as much as her other favorites. (No, no, more.) Not to mention their television presence, charity work, fashion lines... there had even been rumors that they'd both got awards for military service! At this point, Fin reckoned, they should be regarded as goddesses, not everyday Inklings.

"Of course we will. They do the news every morning and every afternoon." This was just a basic fact, you didn't have to be as prepared as Finley was to know about their famous news show. The news normally wasn't very interesting- either sports, local nonsense, or too grim for Fin's taste- but with those two charming personalities at the helm, it was near impossible for ratings to ever drop.

"No, no, no, I mean like in person. Wouldn't that be awesome? Maybe they'd sign my notebook." The little girl grinned.

"Are you nuts? Of course we won't. They're both probably very busy girls, I'm sure, they don't have time to do meet and greets or whatever every single day." She sighed. "As cool as that would be."

"Oh…" Her face fell. "Well- Well, whaddabout the Squid Squad?"

"They don't do live shows, Persi. They don't like crowds." They'd never really said that outright, but it wasn't hard to tell that was the reason- every time they actually played a show, the lead singer looked like he'd faint at the sight of all the people watching him. (Poor Ichiya.)

"But- but- but what if they do?"

"They won't." She was getting progressively more annoyed by the irate questions as they turned the corner- hopefully soon at least someone would be here to distract Persimmon. "We are not going to meet anyone famous. It's just one visit to a bigger city full of- of tourist traps and gross northern food."

"But- eep!" She was cut off by a sudden hug from behind by a slightly taller, much paler girl who was about the same age, who was dark blue and wearing glasses and a simple dress.

"Hello, Ash." Finley flatly greeted the newcomer as Persimmon got over the surprise.

"Don't scare me like that..." The pink girl sighed (with a smile on her face) as she broke free of the hug.

"Sorry." Ash laughed. "Can't help it..." She fiddled with her hair with one hand, pushing up her glasses with the other. Finley kept walking, and they both had to hurry for a bit to catch up to her. "S-Slow down, Finley..."

"I don't wanna be late." With all the people who were going to show up, they were almost guaranteed to be late… (True, everyone she knew seemed to follow that old proverb that said 'late is on time, on time is early, early is locked out', but Finley cared about being punctual. Especially for this.)

"We're never late, though..." Ash looked around. "Did we all wake up later than we were supposed to?"

"Fin's just worried that when we all gotta get together and talk 'bout what we're gonna do, it's gonna slow us down." Persimmon explained. "But she's jus' bein' silly."

"Oh, yeah, the extra people! ...which extra people, specifically? My mom just said to do whatever Persi did..." Yeah, that was reassuring.

"Apparently our parents decided that it would be safer if you little twerps, me and my friends, and all of Mari's brothers- plus god knows who else at this point- went to Inkopolis together in one big old group." Finley said bitterly, the tone of which was totally lost on the two younger squids.

"Really? Oh, that's wonderful! It's going to be so much fun!" Her eyes practically shone as she clasped her hands together. "I can't wait to meet everyone..."

"What'ch'all talkin'bout?" A voice from the other side of the street practically shouted, as a lime green dark-skinned girl with short hair raced across the road (with no concern for her own safety, the moron, she could have been run over). Finley tried not to let Jaz slow the group down, but it was inevitable.

"We're just talking about the trip!" Persimmon filled Jaz in, as Ash asked a hundred more questions, which Finley bluntly ignored. If the short walk to school felt this long, how long would an entire school day feel?

She took a deep breath to keep herself from getting mad. Just a few more moments and- there she was. Right on time. Umi emerged from a nearby front door and walked down to the sidewalk, waving at the small group. She was yellow today- blonde always had been her best color, conveniently enough- and her sense of style was on par with Finley's. (That was a huge compliment, considering it was coming from Fin herself.)

"I see your sister's friends are here already." She remarked as she fell into step with her orange companion. "Speaking of which, that makes you late. Odd, for you. Don't you normally race ahead?" (The full routine, actually, involved racing ahead, then hammering on Umi's front door with her fists, then dragging her to Mari's house and inevitably waiting forever on her front yard for the third musketeer to get ready.)

"Yeah, but mom wouldn't let me leave the house without her." Fin rolled her eyes. "It's only been, like, five minutes, and I'm already fed up with them!" She complained. "A half-hour train ride is gonna suck..."

"Hey, look on the bright side. Jyugo's probably gonna be in charge, and you know Mari can talk him into anything. We'll be able to get away from them, no sweat."

"I hadn't thought of that- you think it'll work?"

"It's worth a shot, ain't it?" Umi shrugged.

"True... Can't wait until we get to her- watch it!" She paused to shout at a passing Emmile- pink, she seemed to always be pink- who somehow avoided being tripped over as she joined her friends. (Thank goodness- now Ash finally had someone else to direct her questions at.)

"Try not to be too mean with them." Umi sighed, putting a hand on Finley's shoulder.

"I can't help it... Dunno how Mari puts up with all them boys. I'd be on edge twenty-four-seven."

"They treat her like a princess, she doesn't have to 'put up' with anything. If anything, they're putting up with her." They shared a laugh. "Speaking of which, her house is right there... Think she went on ahead?"

"Nah, they probably haven't left yet, they wouldn't leave without us. Mari wouldn't, at least. Let's wait 'till they get out." They stopped- causing the four (five? When did Nicia get here? She always did have a knack for appearing out of nowhere...) small girls behind them to bump into their legs. "Oi, slow down. We're waiting for Mari and the boys."

"Why do we hafta wait?" Persimmon pouted, folding her arms.

"Because Mari's oldest brother is in charge of you twerps this afternoon, and he wants to tell y'all to behave." Finley said.

"Isn't he in charge of you, too?" Thanks for that blow to her pride, Ash. She really needed that today.

"Is that them?" Nicia pointed to the house in question, where a small crowd was pouring out the door and being shouted at by a worried-looking dad.

Ah, yes, that family. The youngest brothers- green twins, Kurt and Ray, who dressed identically and were always colored identically to match their faces. Deejay, the yellow middle brother- pretty unremarkable, really, besides his penchant for music. (Was Deejay even his real name, or was that a nickname?) Kayden- older than Mari, and always considered the fun one. Jyugo- the oldest, and the one normally in charge. (And the one who was most mocked for his fashion sense. Always in good spirit, but… too much black.)

And Mari- darling Mari. Dark blue tentacles in a bob that flipped up at the end, adorable face, always dressed like the princess her brothers treated her like she was. Probably the best-dressed girl in their school, the best-looking girl in their school, and the sweetest girl in their school. (At least, in Fin's opinion. She was a little biased.) She walked across the street, her siblings in tow, and approached the group of girls waiting on the sidewalk.

"Good morning!" She cheerily waved. "I see you all were waiting for us."

"Why wouldn't we be?" Umi asked. "You're, like, essential. The strawberry in our Neapolitan ice cream."

"Yeah!" Finley grinned. "You know what they say- two's company, three's a party."

"What about six?" Mari giggled.

"That's a school, I guess." Umi shrugged, looking around. "Bit more than six of us, though..."

"Don't remind me." Finley groaned, watching the twins chase her sister around for a bit before her conscience got the better of her and she had to intervene. "Okay, that's enough, brats."

"Don't call them brats!" Mari exclaimed, even if it was a bit amusing to her.

"But they are brats." Deejay interjected, and held up his hand for a high five from Finley that never happened.

"Get along." Jyugo scowled. "We're going to have fun today. The less you guys bicker, the better. Got it?" The kids nodded, and Jyugo seemed happy enough with that as an answer, going back to his phone.

"Never seen him care so much about something before." Fin said, impressed, as they started walking.

"I mean, Dad is paying him handsomely." Mari admitted. "There's no way on land he'd do this for free."

"Yeah, that's the Jyugo we know." Umi laughed. "Is anyone else coming, or is this it?"

"I think Kayden might be bringing someone, but I'm not sure..." (It went unsaid who this someone was, as everyone knew and no one wanted to say the name around him for fear of having their ears talked off.) Finley did a quick headcount after Mari said that.

"Thirteen. Ugh. How are we all gonna fit on one train?" She kicked a rock, which hit a nearby lamppost. "I've only been on the train a couple of times, but those are small cars and crowded stations... even with the student-only discount, I don't think there'll be enough room for all of us to sit together."

"Student-only discount?" Umi raised an eyebrow. "What are you on about?"

"First three trains are for students only, and you get on free if you show your student ID card. It took forever, but I managed to find mine in all my old school stuff..."

"Aw, shoot. I don't know if I have mine." Umi started rummaging around in her bag, searching for the often-overlooked card.

"Jyugo reminded me to bring mine." Mari laughed, pulling it out of her pocket. "He found everyone's last night so we wouldn't leave them behind."

"Heeeere it is." Umi found hers- scratched up to all hell, but intact. "Ew, is that what I looked like back then?"

They crossed the street carefully- the school was in sight now. With some effort, Jyugo stopped them before they went inside the school gates. "Alright, listen up. We're going to meet right here after school, we're getting on the first train, and we're not leaving until everyone's here, so get your butts over here fast. Capiche?" They all nodded. "Good. Now, if you have any questions, ask Kayden, I really couldn't care less." And he walked off.

"There he goes." Finley sighed. The littler girls flocked to the second eldest, swarming him and bombarding him with questions, and since no one really wanted to help, he was promptly abandoned.

Finley made her way over to the bench where she and her friends usually spent their mornings, pulling out her phone and checking her text messages, every so often pausing to advise Umi, who had sat down next to her and got out a bunch of homework she still hadn't done. Mari, meanwhile, comprehensively checked about six different social media apps in the span of ten seconds. "Ooh! What's this I've stumbled across?" She suddenly exclaimed, nudging Fin in excitement and almost making the other girl drop her phone.

"Whaaaaat?" She rolled her eyes, looking over at her friend's phone. "What do you waaaaaaant?"

"Look look look! Someone hacked the eMuse releases database!"

"I have no idea what the hell that means, Mari. Do me a favor and decode your technobabble."

"It means new music from big names. Today." She scrolled through the lengthy wall of number-filled text someone had obviously just copy-pasted to Flick with no formatting or context whatsoever. "It's near indecipherable, but some hacker managed to pull some info out, and people are saying the Squid Squad are going to release something, like, tonight. This tonight."

"You got all that from this?" True, Squid Squad's PR had always been incredibly lackluster- back when they still did concerts, they had a whole concert that wasn't advertised at all, only listed on ticket websites- and it wasn't uncommon for artists to release something to celebrate the first day of summer , but Fin couldn't help but be a bit skeptical. Surely at least someone official would have said something before it was just released out of nowhere.

"Not just the Squid Squad. Like, a whole bunch of people. Chirpy Chips, The Deep, KrakenWave… Maybe even the Squid Sisters?"

("Someone say Chirpy Chips?" Umi perked up.)

"You can't be serious. This is just some stupid rumor- stop posting about it!" Finley muted her phone, regretting turning on Mari's post notifications on for everything. "It's gonna turn out fake, and you're gonna end up disappointed."

"But what if it's not?"

"There is literally no way it's going to happen. Squid Squad's one thing, but that many people with that much unannounced material at once? Impossible."

"Well, when you wake up tomorrow morning and everyone's been enjoying the music without you, I won't hesitate to say I told you so." She stuck her tongue out, then went back to incessantly chattering about it on Flick.

Soon they weren't alone anymore- various friends from various classes had joined them, and the one word on everyone's lips was 'Inkopolis'. Finley hadn't been alone in planning a trip, and everyone seemed to have their own plans for tonight... but they all had to make it through the last day of school first. The first bell would ring in less than five minutes, and Finley could not wait.


	3. Chapter Three

Five minutes.

Everyone was on the edge of their seats. No one had any room for thought of summer homework, of commas and clauses and triangles and lakes and whatever inane drivel was contained in the meager stacks of paper that no one had looked twice at before shoving it in their bags, nearly emptied of books for the first time in what felt like an eternity. The year had dragged on enough as it was- with the train line construction seeming to take forever, the hullabaloo down south that turned the news grim just in time for the holidays, and all the fights that'd broken out around third term, everyone was ready for a change of pace, some fresh air. Time to blow this popsicle stand. It was all so close. So close.

Three minutes.

Not all shrimp talked too much, to say that would be kinda racist, but this one? This one certainly did. She'd have time to read that damn book, they'd all have time to read the damn book, this isn't something they needed to go over. (Not that she was looking forward to reading 'A Story Of Three Bridges', but what needed to be done needed to be done.)

One minute.

The teacher snapped at them for grabbing their bags (literally) but could you really blame them? The collective atmosphere was thicker than concrete- you couldn't even make a dent with a knife. Kids were ready to run as if their lives depended on it, constantly checking their phones under the desks, but Fin'd already gone over the news enough- and she needed to save her battery, anyways. She'd only remembered to bring one battery pack!

Thirty seconds.

It was almost like they were some kind of summer-induced hive mind, more than ready for the whole day to be devoted to nothingness instead of just most of it. She was almost afraid she'd have to fight people over train seats!

Ten seconds. Nine. Eight.

Three. Two.

One.

You couldn't even hear the bell.

Finley was one of the first out the door, (thanks in part to her seat placement,) clutching her bag in one hand and keeping her hat on with the other, all her attention focused momentarily on not being trampled in the narrow hallway. Until you got outside, it was chaos, a near-deafening cacophony of cheers and confusion, but she couldn't relax yet. There was still a train ride between her and an entire vacation in a day, and if she had to step on people to get there, so be it. Others seemed to share her mentality- whether or not they were taking the opportunity for the day trip or not, no one wanted the momentous first day of summer to be spoiled by anything, no matter how small. They were like an army. A colorful, fanged, overly flexible, fashion-obsessed army.

Jyugo's head was visible a mile away among the crowd, thanks to how damn tall he was and that stupid haircut, and as soon as she spilled out into the courtyard with the rest of the school, Finley followed it towards the gates. Their group soon assembled- Umi got the littler kids from the elementary building ('It's a madhouse in there!') and soon Mari showed up as well, escorted by her younger brothers, and was promptly scolded (mildly) for wasting time taking shellfies with people. Now all that was left was…

"Where is that hammerhead? We're burning daylight." Jyugo complained, scanning the crowd for the one missing brother.

"I'm sure Kayden'll be here..." Finley said nervously, tapping her foot as her eyes were drawn by a certain rowdy group of boys ran out of the gates, screaming 'Inkopolis' like a war cry. "...he better be soon, though."

"Speak of the goddamned devil." He ignored Mari's shout about cursing around the kids and stalked off, returning holding someone by the wrist- Kayden, who was holding someone else by the hand. Said someone looked about the same age as Kayden, with similarly styled baby blue tentacles to match the other's light pink, dressed in pastel colors, and a slightly disoriented expression on his face. Aster.

"Woah... this is him?" Finley looked up at the older boy in awe. "I thought he was just a myth."

"Fin!" Mari elbowed her, laughing despite herself. "Don't say that, it's rude."

"Ahaha, sorry... The way he talks about you, I was beginning to think you were from some dating sim or something. Perfect Aster with his perfect eyes and his perfect tentacles and his perfect sense of style."

"Well, I- he says that stuff?" Aster blushed a bit, glancing over at the pink boy.

"Of course I do, babe." Kayden chuckled, putting an arm around his koifriend. "You're worth talking about..."

"Get a room, nerds!" Umi moaned jokingly, looking away. "I get enough of this second-hand at Mari's place."

"Agreed. We're going to miss the train if this keeps up. Move along, folks..." Jyugo started herding the group towards the gate- they started out walking, but soon they were practically running out of excitement and urgency. A few moments were wasted on arguing over a detour, but they ended up deciding on the fastest way to go via rock-paper-scissors. To the older residents of the unlucky district the entourage stampeded through, it was probably one heck of a spectacle, as this wasn't really a neighborhood that was visited by hyperactive youth, but they didn't mind the stares. Soon, they were at the train station- in the midst of not only kids from their school, but the others.

Not only were there kids in normal clothes, from the only public school in the city, but there were about four different sets of uniforms in view as it became increasingly clear that the private school kids were in on the whole vacation plan. The train station, therefore, was packed. (Finley instinctively held Persimmon's hand, who held Jaz's hand, and so on, and soon they were a chain winding through the crowd.) The usual trains were departing and arriving and being inevitably delayed as usual, but now the usual handful of travelers and business men were drowning in a sea of children who were waiting for the Inkopolis line to pull in. They had some time before the train arrived, since Finley wouldn't hear about showing up less than ten minutes early, and their fellow travelers were buying last-minute snacks and trinkets at the imports shop, meeting up with their friends, and looking around the station (as a good amount of them had actually never been there before). Finley, however, made her way to the front of the chain and dragged her entourage straight to the increasingly long line at the platform. She kept checking her phone for the time, but five minutes seemed to last for hours before- at last- the train pulled into the station.

It was almost magical. The train itself stood out from the standard Subway Direct grays and muted yellows, being decorated with flowers and bubbles and ink blots in bright, tropical colors, with a stylistic mural of the Squid Sisters at the center stage of it all. As the doors slid open, a little chime played, and there was a cheer from the line. The man at the gate looked at each of their student IDs in turn before telling them to 'mind the gap' and showing them to the train. Fin was practically bouncing up and down in place the whole wait, and when her turn finally rolled around, she leapt onto the train with joy.

The interior was fairly plain- they obviously hadn't spent as much time on the interior as they had on the wrap- but the carpet had a cool design and the three-to-a-row seats looked comfy, so that was a plus. She had to go through two and a half train cars before she found enough consecutive empty seats for everyone to sit together, since people seemed to insist on sitting on their own or with their bags or two rows from everyone else or whatever nonsense have you, but she finally managed to find a car with a whole left side open. She dragged Mari and Umi to sit down in her row, taking the window seat (of course), and the bouncing returned as she ran her hands over everything in her bag to make sure she hadn't dropped anything on the way here. "Half an hour, just half an hour, we can do this, everything's gonna be fine, let's do this thing, half an hour, half an hour..." She chanted, staring out at the crowd on the platform.

"What's with the pep-talk mentality?" Umi poked her head around Mari's shoulders so she could see out the window as well.

"Just trying to convince myself not to jump out this window and run the whole way myself." She sighed, pausing her bouncing to lean on the window and pull her phone out to check the time yet again.

"Cheer up. Shellfie!" Mari wrapped an arm around Finley's shoulders, raising up her own phone and snapping a quick photo before the other had a chance to react.

"Oh my god, Mari, you and your Wave. Put it away for, like, five minutes. I beg of you."

"Hey, c'mon. I have fans, y'know, I can't neglect them. I'll put it away in the city. Mostly." She giggled, already typing away at lightning fast speed.

"As long as you tagged me..." Fin sighed jokingly. Having a friend like Mari could be annoying sometimes- mildly popular on Wave (everything, but mostly Wave), who occasionally let it go to her head- but it was mostly easy to put up with. (Besides, with a face like that, she deserved those fans... holy carp.)

As the amount of people she could see waiting on the platform quickly diminished and the chatter was reduced to a low roar, an actual low roar rose up from the floor. A jellyfish lady dressed in a train station uniform stood up from the single seat at the front of the car that she'd been in since they got there.

"Hello? May I have your attention please?" She waved her arms around and tried to calm the crowd. "Welcome to the Inkopolis Direct Inkopolis Line's first run!" She said, ruining her previous efforts towards silence as this only garnered a loud cheer from the peanut gallery. "Yes, um, thank you- I would just like to let you know to please buckle your seatbelts and stay in your seats for the whole ride, and please leave no trash or items on the train. Thank you." She sat back down quickly, not wanting to be at the mercy of her passengers.

The noise of the engine got louder, and the cheer returned as the train started moving forward. Fin watched the station go by, looking at the other trains and the people waving, but soon they were out of the station, and soon they were moving too fast for her to try to focus on anything without getting bored or making her eyes hurt. The excited chatter resumed, and Finley sat up straight.

"So, miss schedule, what is the plan today?" Umi asked, turning to Finley. "Time for your big secret to come out."

"I'm glad you asked." She said, pulling the precious folder out from her bag, and then carefully retrieving her schedule. "Now, I know I haven't gone over the details with you all yet, but I spent all week fine-tuning it so we can get all the best stuff done in one day."

"That's a relief. The thought of you all having fun here without me while I'm off at Camp Triggerfish was nearly too much to bear." Umi put a dramatic hand to her forehead.

"Oh, you. We'd save the fun for when you got back if you didn't get it in." Mari giggled. "What would we do with ourselves if we left you to visit alone?"

"Ahem. The reading." Finley cleared her throat. "Get off the train, regroup, check bags, blah blah, and then the main attraction: a tour of Inkopolis Tower. They only take an hour and a half, and you get to go up to the very top at the end. I've got the money for tickets for the three of us, and it's super close to the train station, I know exactly how to get there, they run the tours out the back, even though you can't get in the main doors-"

"Not anymore, kiddo." Jyugo interrupted, poking his head into their row from the seats behind them (and almost giving Umi a heart attack). "Didn't ya' see? The website. They cancelled the tours."

". . ." Fin sat in silence for a moment, almost believing it, then scrambled for her phone. Surely it couldn't be...

"...Inkopolis Tower Tours closed until further notice, due to heavy overload of seasonal traffic, new facilities inside the tower, and future events planned both this afternoon and onwards..." She read in a deflated tone. "Tours will resume later this summer or early fall."

"What? Since when?" Mari exclaimed, whipping out her own phone and checking, like, seven apps at once to see what was happening.

"Like, noon." Kayden shrugged. "Surprised y'all didn't hear about it... Guess no one wanted to talk about it."

"Ah, I knew I should have checked again..." Finley grabbed at her head. "This is a disaster, everything's ruined, aaaaaaaugh." She slumped down in the seat and began to repeatedly hit her head against the seat in front of her.

"Fin- hey- Finley, c'mon, chin up... There's still a whole bunch of fun stuff we can do today! Right?" Mari tried to smile enthusiastically, putting a hand on the orange girl's shoulder, but her face fell when the folder was apathetically tossed onto her lap. "Fin. Come on, it's not the end of the world!"

"I'm just disappointed. This was supposed to be the big thing we were gonna do… Now I gotta reschedule everything, and we're gonna have to wait so long for them to open, and who knows what they're even doing inside?"

"Yes, but look on the bright side! At least we have extra time to do thiiiiii…" Her speech trailed off as she caught sight of the view out the window.

"Where'd your words go?"

"Fin…? Look out your window."

"Mm?" She lolled her head to the side, but when she saw what Mari'd been talking about, her mouth fell open in surprise. "Holy Carp!" She shouted, shooting up in her seat.

"Wha-oh my..." Umi covered her hand with her mouth as she followed Fin's gaze.

"Where the heck did the ground go?!" Finley shouted, pressing her hands to the glass, and causing several other kids to look out the windows at the deep blue, watery abyss below them.

"That's the ocean... Isn't it?" Umi said, awestruck. "We're on a bridge, aren't we?"

"Yup. Didn't you wonder why it took so long to build?" Aster laughed. "And here I thought you lot did research..."

"Shut up." Fin glared. Bridge-building over the ocean was dangerous work- if someone or something fell into the hot, salty waves, they weren't coming back. Everyone had to be super careful, and it was no wonder the construction had been repeatedly delayed. (Woah, technology.)

"I hope there weren't any casualties..." Umi said hesitantly.

"Nah, it'd have been on the news."

"It's beautiful… Like being at the beach, but way more water and a lot less sand." Fin couldn't help but smile. "I didn't think I'd ever get to see anything like this…"

"You wouldn't get this view from Inkopolis Tower, would'ja?" Mari laughed.

"Yeah… you're right!" Finley exclaimed with a grin. "And who knows what other cool stuff we'll see?"

"There's the spirit!" The blue girl beamed. "Speaking of which, keep talking about that schedule."

Finley started excitedly chattering on in a hushed voice about all her plans for the afternoon, frantically erasing and rewriting and rescheduling, her friends listening intently the whole time, and the remaining time seemed to fly by in an instant. Before they knew it, they were back on the ground again, and soon after the train was slowing down. As it came to a stop, kids sprung out of their seats and flocked to the doors of the train compartment. Finley was surprisingly calm, the surreality of the experience catching up to her again, and before she knew it, it was her turn to leave.

She took a deep breath, kept both hands on the straps of her bag, and stepped out into Inkopolis Station.


	4. Chapter Four

"...the shell is this?"

The passengers had poured out of the train like they'd been on it for days, stood in place for a minute or two as they collectively realized they had no idea where they were going, and then promptly gotten themselves lost as a whole. As one bold boy charged off, the rest of them blindly followed suit, ending up at the very back of the station. At least some of them had made a few new friends- on the way back, another train had arrived full with kids in the same situation as them, it seemed (what a charming coincidence!) and it was as a conjoined muddle of exasperated kids that they finally spilled out of the station doors into the bright sunlight.

At first sight, it was amazing. Skyline and buildings as far as the eye could see, the top of the everpresent tower visible even above the disappointing white tarps that still dominated most of the inner plaza a few yards away, and the pavement was welcomingly decorated with colorful chalk ink splats and swirls- but it was something else that had caught the eye of the young inklings now leaning on the fence-like barriers haphazardly enclosing the construction site: a large, black screen displaying a pixelated timer in the iconic lime and magenta that was the only color scheme this city ever used for marketing anymore. It had attracted a small crowd of curious young folk, standing as close to it as they could and throwing around ideas as to what it could possibly mean.

"It'll hit zero at 9:30 tonight." Umi noted. "Anyone know what's going on then?"

"That's, like, half an hour before we have to go home." Mari remarked, frowning. "Whatever's going on, we won't have much time to stick around and see."

"The tarps have to be coming off. It's gotta be." Deejay shouted, and several others in the vicinity voiced their approval of the idea.

"Oh, shut up. There's no way it'd match up like that." Finley sighed. "If they were gonna open the plaza, they'd do it in the morning. Although... today, of all days..." She trailed off, unable to keep her mind from envisioning what could be. The first day of summer was a pretty big event, and this was the prime viewing spot for the fireworks that were supposed to be over the bay tonight. (It was right across the pavement- some kid had already almost fallen in. The signs telling you not to sit on the rail were there for a reason!)

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it." Jyugo sighed. "And not hang around here too much longer, either. Everywhere else'll be crowded and cleaned out... I was thinking we just walk in a circle and come back here, that way we don't get too lost." The center of the city was a big circle, and since there were so many pedestrians, cars weren't allowed to drive there, so the street was basically one big sidewalk.

"Sounds good." Everyone in their little group seemed to agree with this- except for the three girls standing near the clock.

"You had a schedule, right?" Umi asked Fin. "Say something, c'mon."

"You think I want all of them tagging along?" She sighed, crossing her arms and looking away. "Let's just save it for tomorrow… Umi's got one more day, we can make it work."

Mari frowned. "Aw, but you made it special for today, and some of it won't be open tomorrow... Besides, Umi might have to spend the day at home. Here, look- Kayden? Kaaaaayden?" She ran over to her brother, the other two girls following closely so as not to get left behind by the others, who had already started walking without them.

"Yeah?" He tore his eyes away from the street in front of them to look down at the blue girl.

"Um... Finley had a whole day planned out for us three to do together, and I really don't want to let her down... Do you think we could go off and do that? Like... by ourselves?" She asked carefully. "I- you and Aster can come along, if you want, make sure we don't get lost, I just- I really want this to be fun, and Fin worked so hard, and-"

"I'm not sure about that." Kayden sighed, cutting her off with a hand wave. "It's a big city, and there's no way to split the group up well..."

"There's policemen around every corner, they'll be looking out for trouble. We all have our phones on us, and battery packs to keep them charged. I know all the emergency numbers, we won't leave the inner city circle, and we won't talk to random strangers." Fin interjected, hands on her hips. "We're not kids, you know! We can handle ourselves!"

"Well..." He looked away.

"Please?" Mari clasped her hands together, looking up at Kayden with wide eyes and making a pouty face.

Kayden sighed. "Geez, you really know how to make me do what you want..." He called Jyugo over, and they discussed it for a tense moment (in which everyone seemed to be collectively ignoring the five smaller girls begging to keep walking already).

"Alright, listen." Jyugo finally turned to them. "You text us every half hour telling us where you are, always pick up our calls, never leave the city circle, don't go into any alleyways, don't talk to strangers who aren't working where you're going, and whatever you do, don't tell mom. Got it?"

"Yay! Thank you so much~" She hugged the cross boy, grinning like an idiot, before returning to her friends, who's facial expressions matched her own. "We're in the clear!"

"We'll obviously have to go a bit fast to make sure we're back here before the clock hits zero, but I think with the hour the tour would have been in, we'll be totally fine." Fin pointed in a direction not unlike the one the others had already gone off in. "No need to get our tentacles in a bunch. Let's get going!"

They set off in the direction she'd pointed, and it didn't take them long to reach their destination, despite the crowd and their slow pace. Their destination turned out to be... an old-looking, run-down dollar store. "Hope you brought your wallets, girls..."

"What's this?" Umi asked as they entered. "This is just a dollar store like we got at home. Thought we were here for the cool stuff."

"This is the cool stuff. C'mon." Fin dragged them to the back of the store, the old-looking shrimp at the counter not glancing up from his magazine once as they passed.

"Fin, I don't get it." Mari sighed. "Could you tell me what we're doing here?"

"Aw, c'mon. Don't be a killjoy... And I thought you, of all people, Mari, would get it."

"Killjoy? What joy is happening for me to kill? This is a dollar store."

"Oh, whatever. Anyway, I'm feeling thirsty. Let me just... get a soda..." Fin said, dramatically stepping over in front of a Snappi machine in the corner. As soon as she stepped on the floor tile in front of the machine, there was a noise like machinery coming to life, and the Snappi machine slid aside to reveal a doorway into a well-lit room.

"...woah." Mari and Umi's eyes went wide. They all stepped through the door into one of the nicest clothing stores the three girls had ever seen.

"Welcome to Ara Stelleana. Told you you'd wanna spend some cash here." Fin grinned, watching the other two rush off to look at the shelves of designer-brand clothing and shoes that lined the large, well-lit room. "Fin, you've outdone yourself this time." She muttered to herself, before following her friends.

They spent about half an hour in this store alone, looking at things and trying a few shirts on, but only Mari was willing to actually hand over the pretty penny required, and she left with this adorable white sunhat that everyone agreed was perfect for her.

They left in great spirits, gathering some attention from nearby groups of kids who went into the store to see what all the fuss was about, and they walked down the city circle, moving from store to store, tourist attraction to candy shop to outdoor t-shirt stand. There was a small aquarium, (they didn't hang around there for long- something about it was… inexplicably unnerving) a few more clothing stores, and a huge video game shop that blew them away, but no matter what they were doing, Fin couldn't totally take her mind off the countdown in the plaza.

The girls went to a semi-fancy salad place for dinner- Umi sat next to Mari, while Fin sat next to all the shopping bags. (She'd insisted.) They placed their orders and started chatting- the first real conversation that hadn't been 'look at this, look at that'.

"How long's it even been since we got here?" Umi asked, swatting Mari's hand away from the box of sugar packets. ("Don't play with them.")

Finley checked her phone again. "Three hours, give or take. Can you believe it?"

"Wonder how far we've walked. Wish I'd remembered my WalkBit, dad would have a hard time beating me today." Umi laughed.

"How long do we have until 9:30?" Mari piped up. "I'm not good with math."

"Two and a half hours."

"We're going back there, then?" Umi drummed a hand on the table.

"Yeah, Jyugo says he wants us to meet him there." Mari showed the other two the texts her brothers had sent her. "Besides, if we don't go back, how else are we gonna get home?"

"We were planning to go home at ten... What if there's something super cool there? I don't want Persi staying out too late, but I don't wanna miss anything, either." Fin sighed, tapping her hand on the table.

"What do you think it'll be?"

"Hell, I dunno. If it really is the tarps coming off… probably just the reveal of the renovations. Heard Inkopolis News's got a new studio there, and maybe they stopped the tours because they're getting ready to do them out of the front again?"

"That'd be nice. We could go tomorrow, before Umi's gotta go to camp."

"Do you think the Squid Sisters'll be there? I bet they'd want to do something for the news, at least. Video from their new studio?"

"Let's hope!"

"Here I was telling Persi there'd be no famous people today..."

The talking slowed to a stop as the food got there, and they paid and left as soon as they were done.

Fin had saved one of the biggest timeslots for one of the best attractions- the San-Dan toy store. The branch here was the biggest in the country- three floors, and a huge space in the middle for an actual working Ferris Wheel. Needless to say, Finley's wallet was much lighter and her bags were much heavier when they left. (She'd never get enough Kerobo plushies, and unlike the tiny little outlet stores at home, there was actually a nice selection of their branded clothing. Persimmon would be jealous.) The Ferris wheel was the first thing they went to, but afterwards the three girls almost got lost in the giant store. Thankfully, they managed to regroup just in time to leave before they got too lost in fantasy-land…

At 8:30, the sun started setting, and they made it to their final destination just in time. Fin had clammed up about this last activity until the very end, and Mari and Umi were still in the dark about their destination even when they were riding the elevator.

"This is taking forever… what floor is this on?" Umi tapped her foot. "I don't mind elevators on a normal day, but this is making me antsy."

"The roof." Fin said, as if it were nothing.

"The roof? Finley, this better not be one of those crazy theme park things, you know I hate those…"

"Of course it's not. I wouldn't do that to you."

"Then what are we doing…?"

The elevator doors opened, and them and the other passengers walked out onto the roof…

From the top of the building, they had a perfect view of not only most of the city circle, but Inkopolis Bay and the beautiful sunset.

"Woah…" Mari ran up to the railway. "It's gorgeous…"

Umi followed, but Fin darted off to the side for a moment, returning with her hands full. "One for everyone." She grinned as she handed each of her friends a snow cone.

"Ooh! Where'd these come from?" Umi asked, looking over it.

"Food came with the ticket. Hope you like strawberry, that's all they had."

"Ticket? To what?" Mari tilted her head.

"That." Fin pointed up, and the other two girls turned back around just in time to see the start of the city's biggest event all day- the first summer fireworks. The explosive lights went off with a colossal bang, and more followed them, illuminating the city in a colorful glow. The three girls stood in awe, staring up at the display above them.

"Even I didn't know they'd be this beautiful…" Finley spoke again after a while. "This is amazing…"

"I can't believe you went and set all this up for us. Dinner reservations, Ferris wheel, fireworks show…"

"I mean, it's the first day of summer break! Go big or go home, am I right?" She laughed, pushing her hat up a bit.

"I'm gonna have to pay you back for this at my Christmas party." Mari smirked. "'Go big or go home'… We'll see who's extravagant then."

"Don't let's start arguing now, the fireworks aren't even done yet." Umi rolled her eyes, playfully nudging the others with her shoulders.

"Yeah… let's just enjoy this." The orange girl's smile softened.

The fireworks lasted an hour, and Finley couldn't be happier.

It was almost fully dark when they left- there'd just be enough time to reach the plaza in time to see whatever hullabaloo was going on there and then catch the 10:00 train. They left at 9:10, and got back to the plaza at 9:20, going right instead of left, but it seemed like the word had spread about the countdown and everyone else had the same idea, seeing as the area around the plaza was absolutely packed. Luckily, the eldest of the boys stood out (mainly because he was waving his arms), and they were able to reconvene with the others quickly. As soon as they were spotted, Jyugo rushed over and tightly hugged Mari.

"Thank goodness you're alright, I should never have let you go off on your own..." (Fin got the feeling that was singular, not plural.)

"Fin!" The orange inkling's attention was caught by a squeaky voice calling her name, and she turned just in time to see Persimmon rush up and jump up for a hug, almost making Fin drop everything she'd been carrying.

"Hey there, Persi." She laughed, ruffling her little sister's quirkily-styled hair. "Did you have fun?"

"It was amazing!" The little girl was carrying her own singular shopping bag and a Cinnabun plush that was bigger than her head (and probably what she'd spent most of her money on).

"We walked a lot an' bought things an' there was a guy with a guitar on the street an' Nicia gave him a coin an' there was a really tall building with a spinny spinny thing that we wanted to go on but Jyugo said no an' there was a dancing bear an'- an'-" Emille rambled until she was out of breath. "...an' it was fun."

"Where did y'all eat?" Fin let go of Persi, adjusting her bags.

"Pickin' G's."

"Oh, really? All the nice restaurants here, and you go for fast food..."

"Well, if you're so fancy, where did you eat?"

"This really nice salad place called The Kelp Bowl."

"No way!..." The talking and recapping (and sibling bickering) went on for a few moments, until Aster clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.

"Okay, alright, guys. We got two minutes until that clock goes off, so- so let's make a plan. I think we should stick around and see what's up, but still leave by 10 so everyone can still get some sleep. Sound good?" He asked, and everyone approved (including Jyugo, who's seal of approval seemed to have made him quite happy).

As the final two minutes ticked down and a hush fell over the gathered civilians, Fin's mind was racing, full of dreams and visions and hopes, but also plenty of doubts. Nothing so big could have such a small method of announcement... right?

3.

2.

1.

00:00

The screen went black.

And then it lit up again, playing- of all things- the opening to Inkopolis News. It cut to the studio- no, a different studio, decorated the same as the normal one but certainly a different room, and the lights were off, and no one was there. The scene froze in silence for a tense moment, and then the camera slowly panned to the left, revealing the view from the studio window- Inkopolis Plaza. It was dark under the tarps and hard to see, but no one had a moment to really look before the screen shut off, folded itself up (somehow) and retracted into its base.

There was a moment of silence.

All the streetlights in the area came on, illuminating the rapidly darkening area.

There was a loud clunking noise, and then a mechanical whirr.

And then, all at once, the tarps were whipped off.


	5. Chapter Five

It was beautiful.

The crowd of Inklings stood, taking in the plaza. There were rows of colorful shops in a circle (the Squid Sisters' brand new studio clearly visible among them), and there were two giant animal statues of a fox and a tanuki looking down at the plaza from on top of the rooftops. The pavement was brand-new, and covered with the same painted ink blotches as the surroundings, and the freshly-repainted Inkopolis Tower standing tall over everything at the back. Something stranger, as well- two trucks with LED boards on the fronts and makeshift stages on the top, not unlike ones that were often used for live music at outdoor events.

And perhaps the oddest thing- eight squids, four magenta and four lime, each standing in identical formation on opposite sides of the plaza. They were dressed identically, in what looked almost like armor, with only the color differing. And… they all had weapons. One of each had a long, thin gun- snipers. One pair had what looked like an oversized bucket. Two had a giant paint roller. And the last matching couple held a weapon Fin recognized- a Splattershot, an ink-shooting gun.

There was a moment of tense silence.

Both snipers suddenly readied their weapons at the same instant, and each fired one shot of colored ink at something lying near the crowd, and there was a clunk- it was a spotlight, a set of two, and they turned on. Thanks to the ink, the usually white light coming from them was colored- one of them pink, the other green- but what was interesting was what they were illuminating. Set up on a ledge on Inkopolis tower was a set of unmanned instruments- a drumset, a keyboard, a bass, a guitar, and a mic.

The whole scene was frozen in place for a moment, people unable to comprehend why there were instruments there of all places, and then, with a slosh, a neon purpley-blue inkling dressed in baggy clothes and a whistle around his neck rose up behind the guitar.

Fin knew that face. Everyone knew that face.

The cheers were deafening as the lead singer of the Squid Squad picked up his guitar, waving at the crowd almost bashfully. The chants of "I-CHI-YA" were already starting, as well as "NA-MI-DA", "MU-RA-SA-KI", and "IK-KAN". Finley was not hesitant to join in, even though it seemed the shouting was slightly overwhelming the young musician. He raised his arm, looking around at the scene before him, and everyone fell silent, wondering in vain what was going to happen as if they didn't already know.

She'd often tried to play it on the piano in her house- she'd given up on lessons years ago, and only her mom ever used it, but it was an heirloom- and mostly failed, but she at least knew those four notes.

The four notes that Ichiya played a bit overdramatically, slowly, drawing out each note. C, Eb, F, C. (If her memory served her right). 'Splattack'. The crowd roared, and the orange Namida and purple Ikkan appeared in small bursts of ink behind their instruments as well. There was a pause, and then Murasaki popped out, waving his drumsticks around and grinning at the crowd. (The short urchin had probably just been crouching behind the bass drum, as opposed to hiding as a smaller squidnoid.)

The band greeted the intimidating sea of inklings with more waving, then looked down at the soldiers- those were soldiers, they couldn't be anything else, right?- down below.

A curt nod from their blue leader was all they needed.

They raised their weapons.

Murasaki started the drumbeat. Ichiya blew his whistle.

You could hear the crowd scream the first line of the song as one from anywhere in the inner city circle. "Fri Tsca!"

"Color War!"

The soldiers sprang into action.

Finley had never seen anything like it. The two teams of inklings started to fiercely battle it out on the pavement- ink was flying left and right, one moment the square was pink, the next it was green, back and forth and back and forth. Every time someone popped, they came back from a circle on the ground like it was nothing (gave Fin a heart attack the first time, but she got used to it after the first dozen instances). It was exhausting just to watch. The rhythm of the battle almost totally synced up with the rhythm of the blasting music, despite how shaky Splattack itself was live. (She looked up to watch Ichiya sing, and for the first time realized how this was affecting him- poor guy looked so nervous... but he was doing alright, minus a few stutters here and there. Besides, it was still breathtaking hearing them live, without all the sound overlays that normally gave them their trademark distortion.) The song went on, the battle went on, and they collectively abandoned prior chants in favor of cheering for either pink or green. Fin was particularly fond of egging on the green roller, and it seemed like Mari was favoring the pink bucket-guy. Umi was just aimlessly shouting.

And then the inkling realized something- this was Turf War. Turf War, the stupid game babies played with buckets, but on a whole other level. It looked exhilarating, amazing, thrilling... Why had they ever stopped playing it, if it looked this... fun?

The song was coming to a close already, and it was anyone's game still- if the objective was indeed to have more of your color on the ground, as she remembered. Green seemed to be pulling ahead a tiny bit, but it was so close...

The final moments of the song. Someone started a countdown in the crowd.

It was over.

Ichiya blew his whistle, and everyone froze. The noise dulled down to a low murmur, and a small, chubby, furry something walked out on two legs into the middle of the battlefield, standing in a small inkless patch and looking around. It held two flags, one in each paw, and after a tense moment, it held one up high.

The green flag.

It was a while before the cheer died down. (Fin had to mostly refrain, of course, from fear of her voice being gone in the morning, but she was joining in in spirit.) Once they'd slowed to a low roar, there was a noise as if someone was tapping a microphone, and then a familiar pair of voices rang throughout the square.

"Looks like I won this round, Callie~"

"Yeah, yeah. I won most of the rehearsals, don't get too cocky, Marie."

With a splash, two inklings landed on top of the trucks as if they'd been launched from somewhere up high, and confetti guns on the sides went off as the Squid Sisters themselves did their signature pose. The majority of their audience joined in, copying them as if it was instinct.

"Hello, Inkopolis!" Callie shouted, cheerfully waving at the gathering of inklings.

"How ya' doin'?" Marie grinned at the crowd, and another round of cheering was fired back at them. "Did you like what you just saw?" She gestured down at the battlefield. (A crew of people was already there to mop up the ink…) There was overwhelming approval from the viewers, jumping up and down and trying in vain to get into the plaza. "How'd you like to... give it a try?"

"This is Turf War, the game you all know and love, but to the extreme! We've got everything right here ready for you to play!" Callie pointed to a giant screen under the tanuki statue, and a video started to play.

It was mainly comprised of clips of turf war- battles being held in all sorts of locations, people with crazy-looking weapons, throwing ink-sploding bombs back and forth, even in what looked like some kind of special stadium made specially for turf war, stands filled with a huge crowd watching the eight figures duel it out. The music was similar to the one that had just been played- definitely the same band. (Hadn't she heard something about that…?)

When the video ended, the screen turned back off, and the spotlights focused on the two idols got brighter again.

"Time to give you the lowdown on what we've got you!" Callie pointed towards the green-and-black tower behind them. "Inkopolis Tower is where it's at, all day, every day! Just take one step inside and you're ready to play!"

"We've been working on this for a while, making sure it's the maximum amount of fun possible, and we know you're just gonna love it. We got just about anything you could ask for here! Y'all already saw how it works, and tomorrow morning, you can give it a hand yourself! How's that sound?" Marie raised a hand to one of her ears.

"A bit fishy..." Umi muttered, but no one could hear her over the other opinion.

"That's the spirit!" The green pop star laughed. "We're bringing Turf War back in style, baby!"

"But first…" Callie picked up a small remote from on top of one of the speakers on her truck, pressing the button. "It's time to party!"

All the barriers separating the inklings from the square suddenly fell flat, and the crowd surged forward, filling the square and surrounding the trucks. People who tried to get into the various buildings were met with locked doors, but this wasn't much a discouragement once the speakers scattered around the plaza came to life and the Squid Sisters launched into their trademark song- Calamari Inkantation.

Finley could not believe what she was seeing. She showed up to fall for a tourist trap, and ends up treated to a free Squid Sisters concert? This, she figured, had to be the greatest night of her life.

She tried to join the crowd, but her arm was grabbed by one of her companions, preventing her from going too far.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" She turned around, glaring at the offender.

"We're getting outta here." Jyugo announced loudly to the group as a whole.

"What, really? But... Squid Sisters... live..." Finley's face fell.

"No. It's already too late, and the little ones are gonna get themselves lost."

"This is the opportunity of a lifetime! We can't go home now!" Mari pouted.

"Sis, as much as I don't wanna break your heart, the next train is at 11:30, and Mom is gonna have my head if I keep you out much later than this."

"But… just a few minutes? There's a while before the train comes…" She stared up at him, sticking out her bottom lip for emphasis.

"…" Jyugo sighed. "Fine. But only until the train comes, and you're not going out of my sight. Got that?"

"Yesyesyesyesyesyes!" Mari grabbed Fin and Umi's hands, twirling them around to get a picture. "Can you believe this?"

"No, actually. What are the chances this just happened to occur…?" Umi sighed. "Fin, are you sure you didn't know about this?"

"I had no idea. Come on, I would have told you!"

"It's a holiday, Umi. Plus, what better time to announce this kind of thing than right before everyone has all the time in the world to play?" Mari laughed.

"Are we gonna?" Fin's eyes were practically shining. "Play it, I mean."

"I'm not one for sports, but I gotta admit, that did look pretty badass…" The blonde shrugged. "Maybe I'll try it out at camp first? I know they offer it."

"You got one day left! Come on, try it out tomorrow. I mean, I'm doing it." Fin grinned.

"If Fin's doing it, I guess I have no choice." The blue-haired squid looked up from her phone, giggling. "Plus, it's blog content if nothing else."

"Okay, fine. If we're doing this, we're doing this. But I am so gonna kick y'all's asses."

"Why, you little…" The three shared a laugh before joining the rest of the crowd jamming out to the sweet sounds filling the plaza.

Soon, however, 9:55 rolled around, and Jyugo started rounding up all his impromptu charges, instructing the older girls to help round up the younger ones. As soon as she found her sister and got her attention, Persimmon reluctantly took Finley's hand. Just before they left the crowd, the little girl reached up to get one last sister shellfie in front of the scene.

They escaped the gaggle of excited inklings, and soon, the whole set of kids were waiting for the 10:00 train. The station was pretty empty, seeing as the majority of the guests were still partying, and when the train arrived, Finley gave the concert one last sad look before boarding.

"How are we gonna get here tomorrow?" Umi asked, as soon as the train started moving. "It's not like you've been planning tomorrow for a month."

"I dunno… I'll just ask my mom, I guess."

"You think she'll say yes on such short notice? Really?"

"I mean, she's pretty chill. Besides, if I say you two are going, she won't want me to be sad…"

"So we'll just all say everyone else's parents already approved. Right." Umi rolled her eyes. "This isn't a movie, Fin, things don't work like that."

"It's the best chance we have, though." Mari pointed out.

"Yeah… Come on, don't be a downer. Let's just hope we get time tomorrow to try it out, huh?"

"If you say so…" The yellow girl couldn't help but smile.

The rest of the ride was mostly silent. The younger kids were almost asleep, the older ones didn't want to wake them, and Finley and her friends were too busy lost in their phones and their minds. (Mari, in particular, was going absolutely crazy with posting and research, and Fin had found someone livestreaming the concert on Beme, deeming it a worthwile use of her shell data. She'd much rather be there, of course, but she'd take what she could get.) As they returned home, their parents were all waiting at the station to drive them home- thanks to Jyugo- and on the drive home, Persimmon wouldn't stop talking for a single moment. That was good- it saved Fin from having to snap herself out of the daze she still hadn't broken out of.

She didn't realize how tired she was until she got back to her bedroom, flopping down on her bed. It took all her energy to just change into her pajamas… hopefully she'd be recovered in time for tomorrow's suddenly-planned sports outing.

She fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, and the memories of the spectacle would invade her dreams that night.


	6. Chapter Six

It was a Saturday. The Saturday.

Finley's radio alarm went off at 7am, playing the same song it did every day, but Fin woke up slowly. Just another Saturday… Saturday… As she opened her eyes, she caught sight of her bags from last night leaning against the wall, and suddenly she remembered everything. What had happened last night… and what was supposed to happen today.

Immediately, Fin leapt up out of bed, rushing over to the paraphernalia under the window and rustling through it, emptying her bag of her purchases and leaving only what she'd need for today. She went through her closet next, picking out an outfit as fast as she could- dressing simply in a white tank top and a pair of yellow sweatpants to match the color she'd woken up today, and putting her tentacles up in the usual messy ponytail. She turned off her alarm, then grabbed her bag, dashing downstairs like her life depended on it.

"Oh- good morning, Finley..." Her mother greeted her as the yellow blur rushed into the kitchen. "I'm surprised you're up this early."

"I'm going back to Inkopolis." She announced, flinging open a cabinet and grabbing her box of cereal. "So I gotta be really quick."

"Back to Inkopolis? But- hold on, you just went yesterday, are you sure you-"

"I gotta try out Turf War. I just have to. Remember? Persi told you about the center they'd opened? It looks really fun, I gotta go. Please. Mari and Umi are coming with me, they already got permission." Or so was the story. "It's only in one spot, there's no way I can get lost, it's guaranteed to be safe." She was hoping. "Please."

"Are you absolutely sure about this? I don't want you spending the whole summer ages away..." Her mother turned away, picking up her freshly-dispensed coffee and taking a sip. "Plus, I haven't looked at it, I don't know if it's ok…"

"It's just half an hour! Everyone else is doing it! It's a weekend! Umi's leaving for camp tomorrow, I won't see her for weeks! Pleeeeaaase?" She tried out Mari's tactic- puppy eyes worked on anyone, right?

"...if you insist." The woman gave in with a defeated sigh, leaning on the counter. "But you have to be back by six, got that?"

"Got it!" She grinned, almost spilling the milk in her excitement.

"Got what?" Persimmon, still in her pajamas, suddenly joined them in the kitchen. "Why's Fin makin' so much noise so early?" She yawned. "You woke me up."

"She says she wants to go back to Inkopolis..."

"What? Fin, you can't go without me!" The little girl pouted.

"Can and will. You're too little for Turf War." Fin said with a mouthful of cereal, pointing her spoon at her sister. "'s too intense."

"No I'm not!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Girls! Girls. Calm down." Their mom stepped in. "Finley is going today so she can go with her friends. Persimmon, I'll look into getting your friends together and going soon."

"Tomorrow! Tomorrow! Tomorrow!"

"If I can, if I can."

"Whatever. I gotta go." Finley ate her cereal as fast as she could without choking, and dashed out the door without so much as a 'goodbye'. She ran down the street, hardly paying attention to the things that she normally would. Some boys she knew were playing in their front yard, and they greeted her as she passed, but she paid them no mind, and she barely got out of the way of a jellyfish on her bike. All she really cared about was getting to Umi's house as fast as she could, but when she got there, she waited outside for what seemed like forever for her friend to come out, smartly dressed as ever, tentacles a dark green. No words were exchanged before Fin grabbed Umi's arm and dragged her off to collect third member of their trio, but her energy was spent by the time they got to Mari's house.

She had to take several moments to catch her breath (which Umi noted was counter-productive) as Mari crossed the street towards them. She was pink today, and almost as casually-dressed as Finley, to everyone's surprise.

"Umi, what are you wearing? That's no clothing to be playing sports in." She asked, poking the other girl in the shoulder.

"I'm getting some use out of the things I bought yesterday. I've already packed all my sporty clothing for Camp Triggerfish." She rolled her eyes. "I didn't think you even owned a pair of sweatpants."

"They are yoga pants, excuse you."

"Alright, alright, break it up. No use arguing over pants." Fin laughed.

"Come on, guys, aren't we supposed to be going fast? The eight o'clock train is soon, let's go let's go let's go!" She chirped, walking off briskly in the other direction. Umi followed, and the blonde was left to catch up.

"Wait for me..." She laughed, starting to run again.

It was 7:50 by the time they got there, and the station was not nearly as crowded as it'd been yesterday- everyone who had to commute to work would be here at 8:30, most likely, and the few people who were here were travelers waiting for early trains or kids hanging around the Inkopolis platform. They had time to stroll about the station and look at everything they hadn't yesterday- perhaps in the future they'd grab something for lunch at that one tiny store, or maybe that other, before they boarded- but the three girls found themselves impatiently pacing about in front of the platform. When the train finally arrived, they made sure they were the first ones on- Finley wasn't sure quite how long her student ID would get her free boarding, but she definitely wasn't complaining about a discount.

They took a seat in the very first car this time, seeing as they could all fit in one row, and then their energy wore off for a bit. Finley zoned out, staring out the window at the scenery she'd missed yesterday afternoon and couldn't see last night for all the darkness; Mari was on Wave again, posting and liking and typing and whatever else like her life depended on it; and Umi was reading a comic book.

"Ooh, Fin! You got the new Squid Squad album, right?" Mari suddenly piped up, nudging her friend.

"What? No, what are you talking about?"

"Remember? Yesterday, I told you about the leaks?"

"…no way." She'd totally forgot! How could she have missed this? True, she went straight to bed last night, but there'd been plenty of time to check this morning... She internally hit herself for being stupid.

"New album out of the blue." She held up her phone. "It's called Splatunes, already climbing the charts like a wildfire."

"Are you serious?" The yellow girl stared at the store page. "Wait- hold on, I gotta listen to this." She whipped out her own phone as fast as she could, untangling her earbuds with one hand while frantically scrolling with the other. "There it is... Damn, it's full-price, this'll be a big chunk out of my account balance."

"I already have it, it's wooooorth it." Mari grinned.

"If you have it, share."

"Buy it yourself. I'm a law-abiding citizen."

"Keep it down, I'm reading." Umi rolled her eyes.

"Sorry." The other two said in unison. They continued bickering, quieter this time, until Finley gave in and bought it herself, wincing at the price and how much time and shell data it was taking to download. (Still regretting watching that stream last night.)

"I don't think it'll even be done by the time we get off the train..."

"You can wait for it to download while we're playing Turf War." Mari giggled.

"True..."

"Did someone say Turf War?" An unfamiliar voice caught them by surprise, and they looked over to see a young boy in the row in front of them (green, slightly tan, with glasses and a polo shirt on) who had turned around backwards, resting his chin on the back of the seat. "So you three are going to go play, too?"

"That depends. Who's asking?" Finley tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. She didn't quite enjoy talking to strangers, even if they were of her age. Plus, he seemed… smug.

"I'm Sydney Lagunov." He said with the air of someone with a name you should know, drumming a hand on his impromptu headrest. "I go to Paramount Prepatory."

"I'm Mari!" The pink girl grinned, gesturing to her seatmates in turn. "This is Finley, and this is Umi. We all go to Spring Hill, the public school."

"Niiiice to meet you." Umi said absentmindedly, turning a page.

"So, do you think you'll be any good?" Sydney asked, tilting his head.

"How should I know? I've barely touched a gun in my life." Finley frowned. "Plus, they've got a lot more than guns, if last night is anything to go by."

"Well, my dad owns a Splattershot. He lets me and my brother play with it in the backyard all the time, and I've got pretty good aim." He chuckled, pushing his glasses up his nose. "He grew up playing it, so he knows all about the game."

"I've used a Splattershot before, too. The boys down the street have one, I go over with some of their friends and we play around with it sometimes." True, it was just a replica, and the toy ink gun didn't really do much of anything, but they had fun all the same.

"Really? I suppose you don't ever get much time with it, they would probably rather lend it to someone who'd actually be able to use it properly..." He sighed, half-rolling his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The yellow inkling narrowed her own, leaning forward a bit.

"I'm just surprised girls want to learn how to use a gun, especially pretty ones like you." He pushed his glasses up again, even though they'd barely moved.

"Why, you little..." Finley growled, leaning forward a bit, but Mari stuck out her arm to stop the other girl.

"I think we should all wait until we give it a go before we judge each other. That sounds fair, right?" She smiled, tone surprisingly friendly.

"Yes, I suppose you're correct." Sydney rolled his eyes (all the way this time). "I hope we'll get to see each other there."

'Yeah, I hope we do. Then you'll see who's the better one...' Fin thought, but out loud she said nothing, crossing her arms and slumping back down in her chair, still irked from the interaction. The rest of the ride was spent in silence, as Mari was glued to her phone again, Sydney had turned back around, and Umi hadn't seemed to even notice the conversation taking place.

Fin looked out the window, eyes focusing on the part of the rail moving too fast to focus on. Who did that guy think he was, anyway? 'Surprised girls want to learn how to use a gun', what was that supposed to mean? She'd show him…

When the train arrived, they all eagerly rushed out of the station, and took a moment to take in the beautiful view of the brand new plaza. She hadn't yet seen it in full daylight- it was inkredible, every last detail down to the colors on the buildings radiating freshness.

She couldn't wipe the grin off her face as she ran forward first towards Inkopolis tower. Her shoes made an even beat on the brand-new concrete. The warm sun bounced off her tentacles, and she could practically feel herself shining as much as the buildings around her, attracting more than a couple stares. (Not everyone was able to muster up this much energy this early in the morning, of course.) The doors to the tower slid open for her as she approached, and her heart was still racing as she stepped inside.

It was already crowded, but not too crowded. The music and the chatter combined to make an ambience that was loud, but not too loud. She didn't recognize anyone here, but that was understandable, no one from Moray Gulf would get up this early to play sports, and all the strangers to impress just made it all the more exciting. She scanned the room, blinking at the bright lights on dark walls.

She looked down- the floor was made of LED lights, tiny squids of various colors scrolling across in all directions. She looked up, and there was no real ceiling, instead offering a view that stretched up into the darkness that was the empty inside of the tower. The walls were fully black, covered in artfully-placed ink splats of all colors, but the spotlights mounted everywhere provided more than enough illumination.

The walls were lined with different counters, topped with signs that each promised a different activity- they all sounded shella fun, but most of them were deserted except for a few people loitering around, but the only one that had anyone behind the counter was the one with the huge line: 'Turf War Registration'. She joined the line, looking over at the doors and waving over her two friends who she'd left behind at the station.

"There you are… don't run off like that." Umi chided her as they made their way over, lightly smacking Finley on the head.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry… I couldn't help myself." She laughed.

"What even are we in line for?" Mari tried to see the sign over the heads of the crowd. "I can't read the sign."

"It says this is where we register to play." Fin rolled her eyes. "Fourteen years in Moray Gulf and you still can't read grafitti lettering?"

"Shut up." Mari couldn't help but chuckle herself.

"How long is this gonna be?" Umi stood on her tiptoes. The line was long, stretching across half the rather large room, but it was moving surprisingly quick- squids were being helped three or four at a time and then shown behind the counter to a small elevator-looking thing. They slowly moved up the line, and up the line, until they got to the desk.

"Here you go!" A tired-looking yet friendly-sounding blue lady handed everyone a small stack of paper, smiling. "These are the rules and the safety waivers. You'll need to return these signed by your parents tomorrow, since today is your first day. There's a very small registration fee, but after that you're free to play as much as you want!"

"Aw, man, we gotta go all the way back home just ta' play?" Fin flipped through the paperwork. "Tiny print..."

"If you live far away, you could always elect to take one of the beginners' courses? We have several activities for players new to the game, and they do not require any safety warrants."

"How much's the registration fee?" Mari already had her wallet out.

"There's no need to pay now, ma'am, you just need to attach a check to the papers, and the fee depends on your age bracket."

"I wanna do the class!" Finley stuffed the papers in her bag, looking up expectantly. "Where do I go?"

"Well, that depends. How much experience with the game do you have?"

"I have some, they don't." Umi said before the others could say anything, surprising them a bit.

"You've played?"

"It's not called Camp Triggerfish for nothing." She smirked. "I've only got a couple games under my belt. What, you scared I'm gonna trounce you?"

"Of course not!" Mari huffed.

"Ladies, ladies, please don't start an argument. You'll all be in the first-timers class, since this is a very different experience than traditionally-played games." The sign-up lady pressed a series of buttons on a panel behind the counter, and the doors to what looked vaguely like a small elevator opened behind the desk- no, not an elevator, more like a sci-fi escape pod.

"Right this way, miss." She opened the small gate attached to her workspace, and the girls walked through to the elevator thing. "One at a time, please, and keep a tight hold on your bags." Umi went in first, and the doors closed- when they opened again, she was gone. (That's not unnerving at all.)

"Me next!" Mari hopped in, and vanished in the same way, making the third girl a little uneasy about exactly what would happen.

Finley tentatively entered the small elevator- it looked a lot like the main room, come to think of it, but with less color variety. As the doors closed, she noticed a tiny seat at the back. She sat down, and seatbelt-like straps came out from the wall, strapping her into the chair. She put a hand on her bag instinctively, and almost immediately, the lift shot downwards.


	7. Chapter Seven

To say she'd been scared was an understatement. To say that it was fun after the shock had worn off was also an understatement. Finley hopped out of the elevator with a grin on her face, looking around at where she'd ended up. It looked like some kind of back alley- a square area surrounded by concrete walls, and a door to the right which led who knows where. There were about a dozen other inklings here- a bunch of people she didn't recognize, Umi and Mari, and... that annoying guy from the train. Great.

She tried to not look in his direction, instead joining her friends, one of whom was consoling the other, who looked a little green around the gills. "It wasn't that bad, Umi, come on..." Mari was rubbing the green girl's back in circles, trying to be a bit comforting, but paused when she noticed Finley approaching. "Ah, look, it's Fin! Fin, what did you think of the elevator ride?"

"It was awesome! Like one of those theme park rides that drop ya'."

"Speak for yourself..." Umi moaned, head in her hands. "I hate those…"

"...fourteen, fifteen, aaaand sixteen!" A masculine voice rose up above the idle chatter as a short, pale, timid-looking, light purple girl exited the elevator.

"Looks like we're full!" A second loud voice, higher in pitch, joined the first one. Everyone turned to the right to see where the speakers were.

A tall, buff, blue inkling man in athletic clothing and a horseshoe crab in some kind of very strange military uniform approached the group. "My name is Mortimer Muir, but you can call me Coach M! I'm here to train you rookies into Turf War superstars! ...or something like that, anyways." He laughed loudly, putting his hands on his hips.

"And my name is Sheldon. I run Ammo Knights, a Turf War weapons shop."

"Weapons?" The newest arrival asked, raising her hand. "Like... plural?"

"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it." Coach M waved a hand dismissively.

"Don't you mean, uh, 'cross that bridge'?" Umi asked.

"Yes, yes, something like that." He clapped his hands. "Sheldon! Give these children guns."

"Right-o!" The crab scurried over to a nearby box of brightly colored guns and gestured for the class to come over, handing everyone one in turn. "This here's called a classic Splattershot. It's a ever-so-slightly modified version of a weapon that was used waaaaay back when, in the great turf war! It's super easy to learn, and even kids can get a hang of it- plus,the Burst Bombs sub weapon and the exiting special Bomb Rush make this an ideal set for learning the ropes!" He rambled as he passed the weapons out.

"Don't tell them too much at once, you're gonna scare them. I haven't even taught them how to fire it, you can't be throwing the word 'bombs' around." The taller man playfully smacked Sheldon on the shell.

"I already know how to fire it." Sydney was the first to raise his gun and pull the trigger, but nothing happened. "Hey, what gives?"

"Don't get ahead of me. They're color-locked. For your safety. Or something." Coach M frowned as Sheldon pulled out a small remote with a few buttons and dials. He pressed the biggest button, and a small, light blue, circular light on the ground lit up. On second inspection, it seemed to be a lot more than just a light- there was a lot of wiring and extra apparatus around it.

"This is the most important part of Turf War apparatus we have- it's called a 'chemiformically color-machinery-based form-hooking machine', but everyone just calls it a 'respawn point'. We made it so when you die in the game, you don't die in real life."

The coach stretched for a moment before shrinking down into squidnoid form. He slid along the ground until he was resting on top of the light, then motioned at Sheldon with one tentacle. The crab pressed a smaller button, and the coach vanished into the machine, reappearing shortly in a lighter blue. Coach M stood up, grabbing his own gun (similar to those the kids held, but with a tiny bit of ink inside) and aiming it at the far wall, shooting a single burst of colored ink that splattered against the concrete.

"Boom. Aw'right, everyone line up, we all gotta be the same color. Don't want nobody getting hurt before you're even hooked up properly." Coach M helped everyone change their own color- when Finley's turn rolled around, she had a bit of trouble becoming a squid (hadn't done it in ages, come to think of it) but eventually she managed to get herself in the respawn point. It only took a second, and it didn't hurt at all, but the slimy feeling still sent a shiver down her spine. She took her gun back, looking at it closely, and as her hand touched the handle, the tank started slowly filling with ink.

"Woah. This is... trippy." Mari muttered as she emerged from the spawn point, looking around. "Am I blue now?"

"Yup." Finley looked her up and down as she approached. "Looks good on you."

"Why, thank you." She twirled around a bit. "And the same to you."

"That's everyone, then? I'll keep this on, just for safety, but please don't mess with it." Sheldon herded them away from the glowing apparatus on the ground.

"Now!" The coach clapped his hands together. "As you probably already know, the goal of Turf War is to cover as much ground in your color as you can. Rule Number One! Walls are not turf. Only ground. Don't be a moron." He tapped his foot.

"But they're still useful, aren't they-"

"I'm getting to that bit!" Coach M laughed, cutting off another of Sydney's interruptions. "Kid, I got this. I've coached little league Turf War up in Kana for seven years now."

"This is about as far from little league as you get." Someone pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny. Come on, everyone try out your guns, fire some ink at the ground, you know the drill." They all did so, shooting blobs of ink at the ground with varying levels of accuracy- some people shooting the wall to be funny- and after one boy'd gotten his malfunctioning Splattershot replaced, he was the last to fire a shot. "Good. That's everything you need to know in order to play."

"Really? That's so simple." Wow, that Sydney guy sure did like talking, didn't he? "You can't be done already."

"I said in order to play. That was just the very basics. Like- like breathing level basics. Work with me here, kid." Coach M stood on top of the ink the class had just fired. "Rule Two! Swimming is survival." He became a squid again, but this time instead of standing out against the pavement, he automatically sunk into the paint, head shape barely visible against the ink. "When you're in the ink, the other team can barely see you!" The man raised his voice- hearing must not have been very easy down there.

"If you're still, you're practically undetectable, but if you move- like this, for example," He continued, swimming in a little circle. The onlookers could see small ripples of ink following him around. "Then the bad guys can find you. So be careful!"

As he emerged, he held out his gun. "As you'll notice, when you're down there, your ink tank recharges. They go up naturally from contact with your body, but when they're submerged, it reloads much faster. These little guys can absorb ink from the surroundings, but in the real deal you'll get an ink tank strapped to your back." Coach M took aim and painted the whole area blue in only a couple of seconds. "Don't be shy, give it a go. Swimming time!"

For the third time today, Finley experienced a sensation that topped her previous 'weirdest feeling ever felt'. This would take some getting used to- it was kinda cold, and kinda slimy, and there were other squids bumping into her, which was really creepy, but… it was also kinda fun. She hadn't swum in ink since the third grade, when they all had to learn as part of a safety thing, and she'd honestly forgotten how it felt like. But it was returning to her, and getting more natural by the second.

"This way, everyone!" Coach M was hopping in and out of the ink, shooting at a little ramp up to a similar chamber of the alleyway training course. "Have at thee!" The young inklings followed, and once they realized they were being given free reign to ink this place, all hell broke loose. Ink flew everywhere, people were swimming around like mad, and once someone realized you could swim up walls, it seemed there was no way to calm the class.

Fin had just barely started trying to do that thing she'd seen Umi do where she squeezed through tiny holes in the grates mounted on the walls when Coach M got their attention by standing in the center and throwing something through an old basketball hoop on one wall. A glowy, round, something. Which exploded on impact with the ground. (He was applauded.) "Rule Three! Always be aware of bombs. If you're caught by surprise, yer out."

"Are these actual rules?" Mari raised an eyebrow, coming to sit on one of the platforms, swinging her legs and almost kicking some kid in the face. (What a poorly-timed jump.)

"More like guidelines. Tips. The actual rules are a bunch of wordy mumbo jumbo, I think they gave you some papers, whatever. It's not like they're real easy to break. Mostly." (Fin slightly doubted this guy's competency as a teacher, but his charisma more than made up for it.)

"Sub Weapons! There are ten types. Ten." He walked off, motioning for them to follow him, and when they went into the other area, Sheldon had cleaned up all the ink, replacing it with a setup of several weird-looking... things. "Three types of bombs, and seven not-bombs. Bombs first, they're the most fun." He picked up a box with three different bombs in it. "The triangle! A Splat Bomb!" He held up an ink-filled pyramid for them to look at, and then threw it against a wall, where it hit the ground and exploded after a couple of flashes. He did the same with the other two- the circular one that exploded on contact being christened a 'Burst Bomb' and the one that stuck to the wall given the nomer 'Suction Bomb'. In her head, Fin was taking notes about how he threw them- there was a difference. It was slight, almost unnoticeable, but certainly there. She would definitely have to wrap her wrists around that little nuance later. "If you use them right, your chances of winning will be increased by... a whole lot." Annoyingly unspecific. "Moving on."

One by one, they were introduced to the different 'sub-weapons', and even given opportunities to try and use them- Finley took a liking to the Splash Wall, the vertical ink shower, and Mari seemed to be enjoying running around in circles with a Sprinkler. (Everyone was covered head-to-toe in ink at this point, it was inevitable.)

"The last one is special." Coach M started unfolding a device that looked like a small satellite. "A Squid Beakon. It doesn't do much on its own, but it's very important because it allows you to bend the rules of the game." He waved his hands like he'd just been talking about bending time and space.

"...what?"

"Rule Four! When Super Jumping, always stick the landing." He did a silly pose. "One of the most important actual factual set in stone rules of Turf War is that when you are a squid, you are only allowed to Super Jump to other teammates... or one of these nifty little things, if there is one. You'll be able to see it, there's a- a tracky devicey thingy thing. I don't know the specifics." Had this man ever played this game in his life?

"You get a watch with a mini-map of the area." Sheldon piped up. "Very advanced. Tells you all about it on the website."

"Yeah, yeah, techy whatever. Super Jumping. Everyone knows how to super jump." Also required to learn in the third grade. "This little beacon can be placed anywhere on the battlefield, letting you Super Jump there in an instant- but if you do so, you land on it and crush it, so it's one-time-only. Don't worry, it won't poke you."

Super Jumping... Finley wasn't exactly comfortable with that. It'd always been frowned upon back home, since you got ink everywhere, and just like most of the skills needed for this game, it'd been years since she'd last done it. Maybe this was going to be harder than she thought...

"You're gonna be given a little belt- like this one-" Coach M showed off his own belt, which had a lot of different devices and mechanisms on it. "-see, this one's where your Sub Weapon comes from, it's a little box, and they expand once you take them out. This connects you to the respawn point, this one makes sure your tank properly fills up with ink, this one keeps the belt on..."

As he was explaining, Sheldon took a little capsule out of a packet and threw it at the ink, which started rapidly dissolving into thin air. "We use these to clean up. Breaks up the compounds in the ink so it evaporates much quicker." He explained upon being given questioning looks.

"So, that's pretty much all you need to know! Cover turf, swim around, use your sub weapons, don't Super Jump to anywhere you're not allowed to. Any questions?" A lot of people had a lot of questions. "Good! Now, the fun part begins."

Sheldon wheeled a cart chock-full of different weapons out from the door to the right, and tipped it so they spilled out onto the ground. "Have at thee!"

The kids spent the better part of two hours playing around with the different weapons. Their teacher had clammed up about them, preferring them to learn from experience, and it was a wonderful fiasco the likes of which the girls from Moray Gulf had never witnessed.

Finley particularly liked the giant ink roller- if covering turf was the name of the game, best to go with the weapon that would paint the most area the quickest, right? Maybe this was the weapon she'd choose.

Just in the middle of the fun, however, Sheldon stepped in, dissolving the ink and clapping his hands. "Alright, everyone put my weapons back in the box. You can keep the Splattershots, they're standard-issue for all new players, but if you want some from my shop, you'll have to buy them."

"What? Aw, man..." Finley frowned as she reluctantly handed the roller over. "How expensive are they?"

"You pay for them with the coin-tokens that you get from winning Turf Wars, so it shouldn't be much of a problem." Sheldon grinned. "I hope you drop by Ammo Knights soon!"

"Really?" Umi seemed skeptical. "This is all, like, out-of-pocket? Free admission, free gear… Surely a project of this scale has to cost something."

"I run Ammo Knights out of pure passion and love for my craft, miss!" The little crab saluted. "It runs in my family!"

"No, I meant- ugh, never mind." She rolled her eyes, handing over her charger.

"Now, that's it for the basics. If y'all have your forms signed, line up here, and if you don't... uh, just go over there or something." Coach M waved a hand dismissively, picking up a small box of plastic cards from a nearby bench and leading the pre-approved children to the elevator, pressing a button. "Everyone take one of these. You'll get your ID card filled out at the top, you're in the General Division, Beginner Class, Rank D."

"What's all that mean?" Sydney frowned. (Finley had to stop herself from grinning smugly at the fact that he was still staying behind with them.)

"Divisions are based on age- Junior, General, and Senior. Your Class is based on your skill level. This is probably to keep teenagers from stepping on toddlers and pros from mopping the floor with newbies like you all."

"Makes sense…" At least Persimmon would be playing with people around her height. That was reassuring.

After the last of the kids approved to play had gone up the elevator, Coach M returned to the handful of kids still waiting- about five. Mari, Umi, Fin, Sydney, and the frail-looking girl who'd been purple earlier. "So, you all don't have your forms?"

"Right... we only got them this morning, and we live, like, an hour away."

"Two hours…" The stranger's voice matched her appearance.

"Aw, that sucks. Well, there's a way for you all to play too, it's just a lot of things are restricted, it's a lot safer, yadda yadda... Boring, compared to the real thing, really, but-"

"I don't care!" Finley put her hands on her hips. "Lemme at it!"

"Woah, someone's feisty!" The coach laughed. "Alright, alright! Just lemme get your names..." He put down the now-empty box, picking up a clipboard and a pen that seemed almost comically small for his hands, pushing them over to the elevator and changing its destination with the press of a button.

"Sydney Lagunov." Of course, he was at the front of the line.

"Careful in the elevator, Squiddo."

"Um- I'm Aleena... A-Aleena Bowline..." Somehow, that name seemed to suit the timid girl.

Umi and Mari were next, and then it was finally Fin's turn. She gave her name and leaped into the elevator without caution, hat almost falling off as she sat down and awaited the seatbelts. She wasn't afraid of this ol' elevator anymore!

It started moving.

This time it was a lot… faster. The 'elevator' seemed to have been traveling more like a space-pod from those sci-fi books, going up and right and then more right then up and more up than right and soon she lost all sense of direction, squeezing her eyes shut and holding tight onto the handles. Maybe there was reason to be scared...

The cute lights went off in the capsule, and except for a single light on top of the door, everything went dark.


	8. Chapter Eight

She vaguely registered a change in direction. A decrease in velocity- gradual, but getting more noticable, until the elevator finally stopped. (It'd probably been only three minutes, but it had simultaneously felt a lot longer and a lot shorter than that.) The LED lights returned, pixelated squids bouncing around the walls like they hadn't just been going at breakneck speed. After a tense moment, the doors opened, the sunlight almost blinding. Finley stepped out of the elevator, not noticing her own dizziness until she took a few more steps and almost fell on her face.

She regained her stability, and looked around: she'd arrived in some sort of skatepark. There were eight people here: herself, the others from the training 'class', and three older-looking people she didn't know. There were two 'respawn points', one on each end of the park, and you could see the light they were giving off- one was bright pink, and the other lime green. Of course.

"Alright! I was hoping for this course." The young girl nearly jumped out of her shirt at the sudden voice from behind her. She turned around, but it was just Coach M, disembarking from an identical elevator capsule- if a bit less dizzy than the little girl. "Man, this one's my favorite."

"Fiiin! Over here!" Mari's voice got her attention, and Fin turned- her friend had already gotten over to the respawn point and obviously wasn't able to resist turning herself pink as soon as possible. She was jumping up and down, waving her arms at the two newcomers.

"Calm down, calm down. You haven't even geared up yet!" The older man laughed. He walked through the arena, closely followed by Fin, who had a bit of trouble keeping up with his wide steps. When he reached the pink team's point, he kicked open a plastic box resting against the fences that enclosed it on three sides. Eight sets of gaudy-looking armor (that Fin would rather not be caught dead even looking at) tumbled out onto the ground. "Y'all will be wearing these, they'll keep you from getting hurt. A bit hard to move in, but them's the rules." That was comforting.

He fished out the suits, handing them out to everyone.

After Finley'd reluctantly put her bag in the box with everyone else's, she sighed, resigning herself to having to wear the ugly armor. The hat was first- like a bike helmet mixed with a paintball mask, suffocating and bulky, pressing her tentacles up against her neck in a way she hated. The chestplate was a bit too small, the pants were covered in devices and paraphernalia- the most noticeable being a pair of lights on the hip that were blinking white- and the shoes seemed incredibly hard to walk in at first glance, but to her surprise they were actually somewhat comfortable. She turned herself pink, and the lights on her armor turned pink as well. (At least it was a nice color.)

"And now, the hike! You four, to the other side. You'll be the green team." The coach gestured to the right side of the group, and the three stranger squids walked off without a word. Sydney followed them, but not before looking back and sticking his tongue out at the four girls left alone on the spawn point. (Finley scowled back at him.)

Meanwhile, Coach M super jumped (rather admirably) to a rather rickety-looking tower off to one of the sides. He looked like he might fall off for a moment, but regained his balance quickly and flashed a thumbs up to no one in particular.

"Hey! Can you guys hear me?" He shouted, waving his arms.

"Yes!" Umi called over.

"Get on with it." Shouted someone on the other side.

"Alright, alright. Calm down. Behind you are your weapons! They're in the black boxes. Each team gets one charger, one shooter, one roller, and one slosher! Don't fight over them!"

Mari pounced on the box, grabbing the glorified bucket as soon as it was open. "Mine. Mineminemine."

"Dibs on the roller." Fin laughed, trying to push past her friend to get it. Umi snatched the charger, and Mari tossed the gun to Aleena, who didn't look like she minded not having a say in the matter. (If anything, she looked grateful to not have to make a choice. And kind of on edge. Weird.)

"Get in position! No- no, dude, stand on the point." Obviously someone on the other side was doing something wrong. The four girls stood in a square on the LED circle, waiting for... well, they hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Still, what could go wrong?

"Alright! Everyone ready?"

Fin held her gun a bit tighter.

"Three! Two! One!" He blew the tiny whistle around his neck, and the game began.

The young girl brought the ink roller down in front of her, making a small splash of color as it hit the ground, and ran like mad to the right. The course wasn't exactly on level ground, being a skatepark and all, and it was difficult to run with the stiff shape of the roller, but she managed well enough- until her roller stopped making ink.

She stopped in her tracks, shaking it a bit, trying to make more paint come out. "Is it busted?" She asked herself, tapping the little ink tank on the handle, before noticing a small trail of ripples in the ink zip past her. "Oh, right! Swimming!" It took a moment to shrink herself, but soon she was submerged and recharging. "I gotta go somewhere else, if I wanna paint everywhere." She swam in a circle to warm up for a second, still not fully used to the sensation, then started to make her way towards the left.

'I'm getting the hang of this, huh?' She grinned to herself, before swimming at full speed off a ledge.

Finley let out a yelp of panic, quickly resuming her biped appearance in hopes of a softer landing, but that turned out to not be such a good idea, as she ended up smacking face-first into a pillar, sliding down it and landing hard in the center of a particularly deep dip in the ground.

"Ouch..." She got up, actually thankful for the ugly helmet. "Note to self, don't do that again." She made to walk off, but to her surprise, her feet were almost stuck to the ground. She looked down, and realized what she somehow hadn't before- the entire area around her was neon green.

Well, this simply wouldn't do. With some effort, she smacked down her roller again, managing to unstick herself enough to start running in circles, repainting the dip.

Once she'd sufficiently recolored the concrete, she made to walk up the side and get somewhere else, but she stopped in her tracks at the sudden appearance of a small line of red laser light inches from her nose. The pink girl blinked in surprise, wondering what on earth that was…

But a moment later, a thin jet of green ink shot out in front of her, making her leap back in terror and almost drop her roller. She wildly looked around, trying to find the source, and- of course.

Her assailant was Sydney, wielding a charger and grinning down at her. "Well, well. Look who it is!" He sneered, lowering his weapon a bit to make eye contact.

"What do you want, Lagunov?" She spat, lowering her own.

"Aw, we're only on last name basis now? I'm hurt."He sarcastically pouted, putting a hand over his heart. "And as for what I want... this turf. What else?"

"Oh, get out of here, you- yikes!" She barely leaped out of the way of a second shot of ink, and then a third, a fourth, slowly cornering her.

"Dance, squiddie, dance!" He laughed, taking aim one more time and charging it up for slightly longer, aiming it directly at her face. In the split second before he fired, Fin had an idea. She reached into the pocket on her belt, fingers closing around a tiny triangle. It expanded on contact with the air, and started filling with pink ink. She had just enough time to see the ink coming at her as she lobbed the splat bomb at her adversary. It exploded, the burst of ink enveloping the sniper, but at the same moment the charger's shot hit her square on in the face, and everything went green.

There was a strange sensation of floating.

Then, the feeling of falling into ink.

A tiny bit of pain. More than a tiny bit.

And all of a sudden, Finley was back, standing dazed on the respawn point. "Woah... That was… that was trippy." Was that what dying was like? No, no, otherwise there'd be lawsuits. They wouldn't let that happen.

She looked down at herself, and sure enough, she was all there. "I'm- I'm okay!- I gotta get back out there-" Elatedness turned to panic as she scrambled to get back into the fray.

She was beginning to understand the game better now- for example, a tip the coach had forgotten to mention called 'don't wander off on your own'- and she followed the other three as they began pushing back the green ink, slowly but surely.

Upon accidentally squishing a green player hiding in ink, she took a moment to consider the true capabilities of this thing. It was good for painting, yes, but perhaps it could be a lot more… offensive. Interesting.

The second time she popped wasn't as disconcerting- more so irritating, as she'd made a really stupid mistake to end up in the position she had- but when she returned to the field, something odd caught her eye. Aleena was standing against a nearby wall, staring at her feet, hugging her gun to her chest. The girl was shaking slightly, and her mouth was moving but Fin couldn't make out any real words. This was really worrying- she'd seemed off for the whole battle, and now this...

"Um... Aleena? Are you- are you okay?" She asked hesitantly, taking a few steps toward the girl.

She nodded, then paused, then shook her head no. "I... I'm scared... I don't wanna get popped, I don't wanna get hurt... It's scary, I don't like it, I want out, it's scary, I don't want to do this anymore..." She was talking fast and quietly, but her teammate got the gist, and suddenly understood what was happening.

"Oh. Oh, geez, okay, um- I'm- I'm gonna go and get the coach, okay? You- you just wait right here. You'll be okay." She tried to reassure the girl, before turning towards the coach's tower. He was facing the other side, waving his arms in a way that said he was no doubt egging on a conflict. "Coach! COACH!" She called, but he didn't seem to hear her. "Damnit. Gotta get closer."

She turned back to the other girl. "Listen- hey, listen, you're gonna be okay, the coach can't hear me from here, but I'm gonna go and-" She froze as a small red dot appeared on Aleena's forehead. quickly growing in intensity. "WATCH OUT!"

Her shout was just a moment too late.

Aleena looked up to see a jet of green ink hit her right between the eyes, popping her instantly into a burst of green ink that sprayed Fin (pushing her back and grossing her out). She managed to stay on her feet, and whipped her head around to face the persistent green sniper.

"What. The. Hell."

Sydney jumped down from his perch, rolling his eyes. "It's just part of the game, squiddie. Get used to it."

"You... you dick! She was having a panic attack, you don't do that!" She shouted at him. Even though she'd only known the other girl for a short time, she still felt the need to defend her... Especially against a guy like this.

"Easy splat." He shrugged. "Her fault for breaking down."

"Her fault for-" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could someone be so... heartless? "Why you little..." She marched up to him, tightening her grip on her roller. He raised his charger, pressing the trigger, but before it could charge up fully…

...Finley smacked him in the face with the brunt of her roller.

The neck strap of his helmet snapped, and the armor piece tumbled to the ground. Sydney's mouth fell open in shock as he stared at the furious inkling standing before him.

"Where's that attitude now, big shot?" She raised the roller again. "Maybe next I should aim for those stupid glasses."

That seemed to be the last straw- either insulting the glasses or threatening to break them- and he growled, picking up his charger and jabbing her in the stomach with it. She squeezed her eyes shut from pain, blindly swinging the roller in what was probably his direction as she was knocked backwards. She kept her footing (barely), but the roller had made contact, and Sydney hit the ground with not a thud but a squelch as the side of his body got stuck in a patch of pink ink. As Fin regained her composure, she kicked him in the stomach, but he grabbed her foot and dragged her down with him. There was a scream from behind her, and she managed to catch a glimpse of a respawned Aleena looking in horror at the fight, before Sydney socked her in the face. She returned the gesture with force, and soon they were both wildly swinging in each other's direction, throwing swears and insults around like snowballs.

She vaguely heard squelching footsteps from behind them, and it was only a moment before the other players arrived on the scene. They quickly took control of the situation, prying apart the two adversaries and trying to calm them down. By now they weren't even fighting for a reason anymore, purely out of pent-up animosity, and the fact that most of their limbs were being restrained reduced it to a shouting match, but once Fin realized she would not be let go any time soon, she begrudgingly gave up prolonging the confrontation, resigning herself to glaring at Sydney.

The coach finally appeared, super jumping to them in a splash of blue ink that made everyone instinctively flinch. "What in the name of the gods is going on here?!"

"She's a maniac!" Sydney immediately shouted, vicious expression melting into a distressed one.

"I'm a maniac? You- You're the inconsiderate bitchface!" She glared. "Don't even try to play the victim!"

("Fin! Language!")

"I was trying to play the game properly, unlike some people!" He rolled his eyes.

"You don't just pop someone in the middle of a panic attack!"

"Panic attack?" Coach M raised an eyebrow.

"Aleena was freaking out. I was about to go and get you, but then he shot her." She broke an arm free of Umi's grasp to point accusingly.

"Ah, I see..." The man thought for a concerningly long amount of time. "Well, I suppose that's out of line..."

"You suppose?!"

"Still, there was no reason to turn it into a fistfight." He frowned at the pink team.

"Oh, come on." She groaned.

"I'm going to have to cut this game off here, both 'cause of this and the time. From above, it's easy to see that the green team has painted way more turf, so I'm going to have to give them the win, even though I don't really think either side deserves it, from the sheer lack of sportsmanship demonstrated here."

"No way..." Fin's face fell. (The other team didn't look too happy with themselves either, though.)

"There's no prize, there never was a prize." The coach flicked an ink-dissolver onto the ground, and it began to do its work. "Bragging rights, I suppose. Everyone go put your weapons and armor back, and get your stuff. I have to take you back to the tower now." He seemed to have lost most of his fun attitude in favor of a disappointed one. "If you want to play more, you're going to have to get your safety forms signed- and to keep your tempers under control." The eight inklings nodded in unison. "I'll get the elevator ready."

The players retreated to their various camps to return their gear- Sydney flashing one more cocky smirk at Fin, but then promptly getting shoved by a much taller teammate, landing face-first on the no-longer-ink-cushioned ground. At least he got some comeuppance.

"You just had to start a fight, huh, Fin?" Umi moaned, throwing her helmet in the box. "We might have one that if not for you stirring up trouble."

"Hey, I'm sorry, okay?" She sighed. "But to be fair, he deserved it."

"He really did."

"Mari, don't take her side."

"What? She's my friend. I'm, like, legally obligated to." Mari giggled, but Umi didn't seem as lighthearted about the situation. While she started to tell the shorter girl off, Fin was distracted by a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, and Aleena was looking up at her.

"Um... Thank you."

"? For what?"

"F-For standing up for me... You really didn't have to do that..."

"Yeah, I kinda did. Someone's gotta put guys like that in their place, y'know?" She laughed.

"Still... I really appreciate it. Thank you so much." The shorter girl bashfully smiled up at Fin.

"No problem.- hey, Mari, what are we doing after this?" She turned her head. "We can't hang around here, but we can't just go home, the day'll be wasted..."

"I dunno. I saw a cool cafe nearby, you wanna check that out? I'm getting kinda hungry." She shrugged, getting to her feet.

"Sounds good." Umi nodded. "Is it the one with the bookstore?"

"Yeah."

"What cafe with bookstore? I didn't see that." Fin frowned.

"That's because you ran straight into Inkopolis Tower, Finley." Umi chuckled, rolling her eyes.

"Oh. Right. …Anyways. Is it okay if Aleena comes along?- if you want to, that is."

"Um! I- I can't go home yet either, so… I'd love to!" She smiled again. "Thank you very much…"

"No problem! The more the merrier." Mari grinned. "But you gotta be cool with your face being on the internet."

"The internet?"

"Yeah! Here, starting now- shellfie!" She pulled out her phone, pushing everyone else close to each other before poking her head in and snapping a photo. "Wow. You are, like, really photogenic, girl."

"I-I am?"

"Totally. You got Wave?"

"No, I don't..."

"Shame. You should totally get it so I can tag you."

"Mari's, like, famous." Fin pitched in.

"I am not famous, you shut up..." Mari blushed a bit.

"Can we get going, please?" Umi started dragging Mari towards the elevator. "I'm hungry."

"Right. Food!" Fin grinned, falling into step with the other two. Aleena had to run a bit to catch up, but managed to keep pace to the elevator.

The ride back to Inkopolis Tower seemed longer than the one from the training alley, and Fin was once again alone with her thoughts. So much was running through her mind- about the fight, but about more than that- but she barely had time to process it before she was back in the lobby. She made sure to wait for Aleena, but then the two of them caught up to Mari and Umi as fast as they could. (They were almost out the door without them! The nerve.)

The cafe in question was to the left of the tower, and back a bit, but the door wasn't too hard to find, the menu wasn't too pricey, and the building wasn't too crowded. The perfect place for a light lunch and a discussion about the rest of the day.

Fin ended up the last without food- how long does a simple bubble tea take to make?- and as she was waiting on her order to be finished, something caught her eye.

There was a small rack of books for sale, right below the cash register, and one of them was titled "Turf War- Everything You'll Ever Need To Know". She hesitated for a moment, then picked the book up and placed it alongside her food as she paid. She didn't know why she'd bought it- these books didn't tend to be awfully helpful, but if nothing else it'd make for a nice read on the train ride home- but the thought of it soon vanished from her mind as she slipped it into her bag, walking to the table the other three had chosen to sit down alongside them and join in the conversation.


	9. Chapter Nine

"So... now what?"

The food was gone, the small talk was exhausted, and the awkward silence had decidedly fell over the table. It had been long enough since their color had been force-changed that it was slowly fading back to what they were originally. (It was almost exactly what Mari had woken up as, and the pink-to-purple and pink-to-yellow gradients looked rather nice on their respective bearers, but Umi just looked… really odd.)

The four squids kept glancing out the window in the direction of the growing gaggle of pedestrians gathering outside the tower, but it only served to worsen their moods. Fin had finally spoke up, punctuating her words with rapid taps on the table. "We've been silent for, like, ever and ever. And ever."

"I was gonna say we could go shopping again, but I don't think any of us would be able to focus, would we?" Mari half-laughed, shrugging. "I'd just wanna get back here…"

"Weird. A few days ago, none of us would even think of taking up sports, now here we are, bummed out over being forced to stay away…" Umi looked in the direction of the crowd again, gaze lingering for longer this time. "You think you know yourself."

"Maybe we should just blow this popsicle stand. Get the forms signed, get ready for tomorrow…" Fin replied, leaning back in her chair.

"I'll be strong-armed into more packing." The green(ish) inkling shrugged. "But I guess it's better than hanging around here with nothing to do."

"I dunno when the next train back home is…" Aleena frowned.

"I'll look it up for ya'." Mari offered, whipping out her phone. "Where do you live?"

"Shell City." Fin wasn't the biggest fan of geography, but she thought she knew where that was- in the complete opposite direction from Moray Gulf.

"Are lotsa' people from over there here, too?" She leaned her elbows on the table, hands under her chin.

"Yeah… The train last night was packed with people. It would have been this morning, too, if it hadn't been so early…"

"How early did you have to get up?"

"Like, five in the morning."

"You serious?! Man, I can barely stand getting up at six." Mari laughed. "Oh, and your next train's at two, by the way."

"Then I'll be home by four… But that still leaves an hour and a half to kill." She pondered over her situation, drumming a hand on the table.

"…Mari?" Umi suddenly broke her silence, straightening up but not taking her eyes off the window. "There's something I think you wanna see…"

"What? What is it?" The other girl turned to look at the window, eyes searching for a moment or two before freezing in place, then narrowing. "Oh."

"Don't leave me hanging! What's going on?" Fin tried to see over Umi's head, but it was futile as Mari quickly stood up in her chair, marching out of the café. The other three scrambled to follow her, half of them still clueless, but soon they could see what had gotten her so riled up.

Jyugo, Kurt, and Ray were standing in the middle of Inkopolis square, looking as nonchalant as ever, the older checking his shell phone while the younger two ran in circles around his legs.

"What the shell are you doing here?" Mari put her hands on her hips, glaring up at him. "I thought you said you'd let me go on my own."

"Yeah. We did. And then we also came. On our own." He looked away from his phone, a smug smile spreading across his face.

"Liars! You came to spy on me!"

"I did not. I wanted to play Turf War, just like everyone and their grandma today."

His sister puffed out her cheeks. "Well, you can't! The front desk gives you a whole bunch of safety forms, and you have to get Mom 'n Dad to sign them before they let you in! So there."

"Hm? That? Aw, I was wondering what you were doing out here. Guess you forgot to do your homework…" He fished around in his bag for a moment or two, then pulled out three stacks of stapled papers. "You could have just printed them, y'know. They're on the website."

"They have a website?!" Fin's mouth fell open. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I thought you'd have thought ahead." The tall boy shrugged, brushing one dark green tentacle out of his face. "Guess you weren't as good at all this as you thought, huh?"

"If they didn't let you in, what've y'all been doin'?" Ray (Kurt?) stopped in front of Fin, bobbing on his heels. "An' why're y'all all half pink?"

"There's this training class they have for kids who can't play yet. It was okay, I guess… until someone started a fight…" Umi shot a glare in Fin's direction.

"Excuse me! I was defending the innocent!" She gasped in mock offense, putting a hand over her heart. "How dare you try to blacken my name!"

Aleena giggled, but suddely squeaked in surprise as Kurt (Ray?) bounced up to her. "Who's this chick?"

"Kurt! We do not talk to strangers that way." Mari frowned.

"What? She is a chick, ain't she?.. Ain't she?"

"This is Aleena, we met her in the beginners' class." Umi explained, rolling her eyes.

"Aw, so she can't play either? Shame. We needed a fourth member." Jyugo laughed. "Guess we'll just have to find someone else inside, then. Catch you back home?"

"Why, you little…" Fin spoke through her teeth as the three boys walked away, the tallest waving near-sarcastically.

"Let's just go home, guys." Umi shook her head. "Hanging around here's just gonna make our mood worse."

"Yeah, you've got a point… I should get those safety forms signed before I forget."

"The quicker I get home, the less Persimmon will want to come along next time."

"My dad'll be worried about me…"

With those disappointed murmurs, the group set off across the plaza back towards the train station.

* * *

"Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?" Mari asked Aleena for the umpteenth time as the train to Moray Gulf pulled into the station.

"It's not that long of a wait, it's fine." She reiterated.

"But- I could always-"

"Like I said, you'd have to be waiting even longer if you stayed behind… just go home. I'll occupy myself." She pushed the taller inkling towards the train doors her friends had already gone through.

"Fiiiine… but message me on Wave if you get lonely, okay?"

"Mari!" Fin called from the door of the train car. "Hurry up!"

"I'm coming!" She rolled her eyes, waving at Aleena one last time before boarding.

"Honestly, it's like you're leaving your grandma in another country." Umi laughed, taking her bag off the saved seat. "You met her three hours ago!"

"Yeah, but she's just so little, and fragile-looking, and-"

"She's our age, Mari." Fin nudged her with her elbow. "She can handle herself fine."

"I know, I know. I'm probably being paranoid… little girl alone in a train station… big, crowded city…" The last two parts were more muttered to herself, before she frantically pulled out her phone.

"If you're messaging Aleena, I swear-"

"Oh my god, she is." Umi laughed, smacking Mari upside the head. "Seriously, you're acting like your brothers."

"Am not!" She stuck out her tongue.

"Are too."

"They're really rubbing off on you."

Mari pouted, sticking her shell phone back in her bag. "Meanies."

"I wonder if she'll be here tomorrow…" Fin mused. "I dunno if she liked the game that much."

"Aw, she'll warm up to it." Mari rolled her eyes. "She was doing really great until the first time she got popped."

"Really? I didn't know someone'd splatted her." Perhaps that was what triggered the breakdown, then… "Was it Sydney?"

"Nah. It was their bucket guy. I saw it happen, it was pretty sweet… Dove from above. She never saw it coming." Umi nodded, almost as if in approval.

"I wanna do that." Mari bounced in her seat. "I wanna be cool like that."

"Same here." Finley laughed. "It's almost like it's contagious."

"Ooh! Ooh! I'm gonna ask some of my internet friends if they're in the area. They can tell us what it's like." Mari took her phone out once again, and her friends were unable to find a good enough reason to keep her from getting lost in the internet.

"And there she goes." Umi sighed. "Hopeless."

"We're no better." Fin pulled out her own phone, shrugging off a disappointed look from the girl in the aisle seat. "We've got a whole train ride ahead of us, let her indulge herself."

"Whatever- hey, Fin, you got a pen?" Umi'd been fishing around in her bag for a while, and had pulled out a small stack of papers, but seemed to be lacking a writing instrument.

"Always. Why'd'ya ask?" She grabbed a pen from a pocket in her bag and tossed it over- the other girl fumbled with it for a moment before being unable to save it from hitting the floor. She picked it up, turning the papers in Fin's direction.

"Still gotta do these things for Camp Triggerfish. I told my dad I'd pick yesterday, but I forgot until after the festival… and then I decided to wait until I tried Turf War to sign up for stuff."

"Like camp activities?"

"Yeah. Turf War is the biggest program- I think I tried it once, when I was really little, but I barely remember it. They've got normal camp stuff, too, archery, crafts, boating…"

"Boats? Damn. That's hardcore."

"It's not hardcore, the lake barely goes up to your shoulders and all the water's treated, even the river." She rolled her eyes. "Kayaking is full of little boys who think they're all that and canoeing is full of little girls who screech every time they so much at look at water."

Finley looked over the options- looked pretty standard, like Umi'd said, and a lot of it looked pretty boring- the various Turf War activities were in their own category, as were water-related activities ('recommended for older inklings'). "What about that one?" Finley pointed at 'river rafting'.

"Oh, yeah, that one's pretty hardcore. They throw you down a river on a life raft."

"They do not." The mostly-yellow girl gasped. "Like- a proper one? That goes down a mountain and everything?"

"Yup. The things are pretty bouyant, and you're tied down real well, but the river's super fast. Sprays in your face and everything."

"…has anyone ever died?"

"Not officially, but if you hang around for the ghost stories…" She shrugged.

"Geez." Fin grimaced as Umi put a big circle around river rafting, and a smaller one around her age group's Turf War listing, as well as a few other activities. "Don't be the first to officially die, please."

"I'll try my best." She laughed. "As long as you don't get yourself killed in Turf War."

"Killed? I doubt it." Fin rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious. People get hurt at camp playing it all the time."

"Little kids. I ain't a little kid."

"Whatever you say." She sighed. "Just be careful…"

"I will, I will." Fin waved a hand, laughing dismissively as Umi went back to whatever she'd been doing. With no one else to talk to, Fin leaned out the window, boredom quickly taking over as she absentmindedly flicked through songs. The train sped along, through relatively-uncharted-looking wilderness and along a coastline, before gradually sloping upward- soon, they were in the air, cruising along the bridge built over the bay. If her eyes followed the coast they were driving away from, she could see the edge of Inkopolis, the very train station they'd departed from, and every last skyscraping building. Beyond that was a beautiful expanse of land, trees and cities and plains and everything and a big mountain ridge and she'd never seen it before in her life and it was all so gosh darn beautiful. She leaned her elbows on the bottom of the glass pane, pressing her small nose up to the glass to try and get a better view.

After a few minutes of stunned observation, she caught sight of something strange. It was only for a brief moment, a flash of something between two slowly-passing mountains, but Finley thought she saw what looked like a giant stone tentacle, stretching out from somewhere beyond her field of vision… but it vanished before she could blink, one mountain suddenly being in front of the other as the bridge slowly curved to the left.

Disconcerted, she decided that was enough mountain-watching for one day, and spent the rest of the train ride uncertainly gazing at the beautiful, terrifying ocean.

* * *

 _Has it really been a year since chapter one?.. yep. It's been a year. I'm trash._


End file.
